Colorado housing markets slowed sharply in fourth quarter(partly seasonal)
Housing markets across Colorado hit the brakes hard in the fourth quarter, according to a report Thursday from the Colorado Association of Realtors.
Colder weather and the holidays typically cause activity to slow in the final three months of the year. But the rate of deceleration as 2013 ended was enough to raise concerns for 2014.
"Our biggest challenge is not having enough inventory to meet the needs of all the buyers wanting to be in the market. Many people end up disappointed," Duane Duggan, a broker with Re/Max of Boulder, said in a statement.
New listings of attached and detached homes for sale statewide rose 11.3 percent to 127,069 last year compared with 2012. But new listings rose 1.2 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period in 2012.
Statewide home resales, which were up 15.5 percent to 96,071 in 2013, rose 3.4 percent in the fourth quarter. The median price of homes sold in the state rose 5.3 percent in the fourth quarter, down from an 8.6 percent pace across all of 2013.
Housing activity was weakest in the state's mountain-resort counties, which suffered a 15.3 percent drop in listings and a 14.7 percent drop in sales in the fourth quarter. The region was the only one to see overall declines in activity in all of 2013 versus 2012, according to CAR.
The northwest region, which covers Grand Junction, Craig, Delta and Montrose, saw the only other drop in fourth-quarter home sales: a 5.8 percent decline.
Fourth-quarter home sales were rising at the fastest pace, 9.9 percent, in the northeast region, which includes Boulder, Fort Collins, Greeley, Longmont and Logan and Morgan counties.
The biggest mismatch between expectations and reality was found in the southwest region, where listings rose 15.4 percent but sales rose 4.5 percent in the fourth quarter versus a year earlier.
Metro Denver, the state's largest housing market, saw home sales rise 4.1 percent and listings rise 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter versus the same period in 2012. For all of 2013, there was a 16.8 percent gain in sales and a 12.8 percent rise in listings versus 2012.
Read more: Colorado housing markets slowed sharply in fourth quarter - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_24980698/colorado-housing-markets-slowed-sharply-fourth-quarter#ixzz2rLw9k4Pk
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