Owning a home isn’t just about a place to hang our hats or lay our heads down at the end of each day. It’s much more than walls and a roof over our heads. Our home speaks to our commitments in our lives. Our investment in our financial life, social life, and the life of the community where we participate regularly. That participation may include attending school, holding a job, shopping, playing sports, or raising our families.
From home we venture out each day into the larger life we live, interacting with the rest of our community. Even if only through the property taxes we pay that support local schools, parks, and the infrastructure that benefits all members of the community.
Real estate affects the majority of us without even realizing how vital it is to the community we live and work and play in. 4440 people decided in March to make the metro Denver/Boulder area their community, choosing and closing on a home purchase. Most of them went through the process of speaking to lenders, comparing interest rates and loan costs before committing to borrow in the form of a mortgage, because community matters.
Average sale prices in March were $646819. While that is an increase from sale prices a year ago that averaged $545763, within an average of 12 Days on the Market, from the 8241 homes available to choose from, these folks recognized the value of homeownership and community.
Many lenders are helping ease the obstacles we have been facing such as mortgage interest rate hikes, inventory scarcity, and affordability challenges by working to broaden their programs and expanding credit scores and Loan-to-Value requirements.
Fannie Mae’s senior vice president and chief economist, Doug Duncan, says the housing market should weather risks more easily than other economic markets. “Housing is currently acting as support to an otherwise slowing economy,…” Although real estate has also seen a slight downturn so far in 2022, Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, says the reason for the decline is simple. “Pending transactions diminished, mainly due to the low number of homes for sale. Buyer demand is still intense, but it’s as simple as ‘one cannot buy what is not for sale.”
March hasn’t seen any significant increase in inventory levels either, but with spring sprouting all along the Front Range, there are expectations that the inventory of homes for sale will improve! Meanwhile, don’t miss out on your forever home. Feel free to call me for the very latest update on available homes for sale in the community you want to call home!
