Average home prices in Colorado set another record in March, rising from 344,796 to $354,580 – or 3% — over February. This continues a trend that has placed Colorado home prices among the fastest growing in the country.
The news comes from REcolorado’s March housing market report. REcolorado noted that, despite the rising prices, homes sold six days quicker in March than in February – at an average of 33 days. This is 14 days faster than in March of 2014.
The fast selling times and rising prices are a result of an extremely tight Denver real estate market, in which inventory has been at historic lows, forcing buyers to compete for properties. Thankfully for buyers, new listings rose 38% from February to March, jumping from 4,537 to 6,247. While this provides some relief, the overall number of houses on the market remain low.
“The Denver area’s tremendous growth, strong economy and low unemployment rate, along with interest rates that remain near historic lows, are keeping demand for housing very strong in our market,” said Kirby Slunaker, president and CEO of REcolorado.
Some voice concern that rising prices may impact companies’ decisions to do business in Colorado. Expensive housing can put up barriers to companies looking to expand or relocate to an area, Tom Clark, CEO of the Metro Denver Economic Develop Corp, told Inside Real Estate News.
“Denver has had the highest housing prices of any city without a coast for quite some time,” he said. “On a regional basis, we have long competed against Dallas and Phoenix. Dallas has some of the cheapest housing of any major city in the country. And Phoenix also is cheaper than Denver.” Clark also noted, however, that Denver’s property taxes are lower than many other cities.
Next to Colorado, South Carolina and Michigan had the fastest-growing home prices in February, according to a CoreLogic report. Anand Nallathambi, CEO and president of CoreLogic, a property-information company, noted that he doesn’t expect to see price declines any time soon.
“This is the hottest home price appreciation prior to the spring selling season in nine years,” he told the Denver Business Journal. “Assuming a benign interest rate environment and continued strong consumer confidence, we expect home prices to rise by an additional 5% over the next 12 months.”
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