Denver-area home resales down 21% in August from 2009 – Denver Business Journal

September 10, 2010 at 12:10 am (Uncategorized) (5 Star Advantage, Denver, Denver Real Estate, Jill Schafer, Moving to Denver, Real estate, Real estate pricing, Relocating to Denver, Tax credit)

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Denver-area home resales down 21% in August from 2009 – Denver Business Journal.

Sales of existing homes in the Denver area fell 21 percent in August from a year earlier, and the inventory of unsold homes rose 17 percent, according to the latest monthly analysis of Metrolist sales data by broker Garold D. Bauer.

An estimated 3,079 resales of existing houses and condos closed in August in the area, down 21.2 percent from the August 2009 total of 3,905 homes, Bauer’s report says. That follows a 26.6 percent year-over-year decline in July.

Home resales in August were down 5.5 percent from the July 2010 tally of 3,259, which was down 19.5 percent from June’s total.

Denver-area existing homes under contract in August totaled 3,966, down 24.4 percent from August 2009 but up 4.1 percent from July 2010, Bauer reports. Home sales generally close 30 to 90 days after they go under contract.

There were 23,615 unsold existing homes on the market in August, up 16.8 percent from a year earlier but down 1.3 percent from July 2010.

Denver-area existing homes sold for an average of $268,767, up 7 percent from August 2009 and about even with July 2010, Bauer said. Stand-alone houses sold for an average of $295,516 in August, up from $273,972 a year earlier, but condos sold for an average of $159,382 in August, down from $167,090 a year earlier.

For the first eight months of 2010 through August, Bauer reported closed home resales in the metro area down 1.4 percent from a year earlier.

Existing home sales, or resales, are those of homes that have been sold at least once before. Bauer’s report does not include sales of newly built homes.

The numbers to some degree show the impact of the ending of the federal government’s first-time homebuyer tax credit, for which the deadline for homes under contract to qualify was April 30.

Analysts say the tax credit boosted home sales in the months before the deadline and moved up many purchases that otherwise might have happened in the summer, causing summer numbers to sag more than they would have otherwise.

Bauer, an independent residential broker in Littleton, uses data from Metrolist of Greenwood Village, metro Denver’s Multiple Listing Service, providing home-sale data to real estate professionals.

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