IT PAYS TO UNDERSTAND ‘DAYS TO OFFER’ AND WHY IT MATTERS TO YOU
On the surface, housing demand looks flat across Northern Colorado. After all, total sales across the region’s six largest markets (Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland, Windsor, Berthoud, Timnath) lagged 1.8 percent behind last year’s totals through the first six months of the year.
But don’t let the slim sales figures fool you. In fact, homebuyers are showing a sizable appetite for real estate in Northern Colorado.
An important metric people do not often understand is Days to Offer, which is the the time when a property goes on the market to when it goes under contract. The pace at which sellers go under contract is often faster than most people perceive, so make sure you pay close attention to Days to Offer.
Why is Days to Offer important to both buyers and sellers in today’s real estate environment?
When buyers start looking at a property, they typically ask two primary questions:
1. What is the price?
2. How long has the property been on the market?
If a would-be buyer hears that the property has been available for longer than the expected timeline, it’s likely the seller is asking too much, and also likely a buyer will want to negotiate for concessions from the seller.
Keeping your property from lingering on the market too long often comes down to getting the price right. And the right price requires a well-thought-out pricing strategy, using a market analysis that weighs both comparative and competitive data.
Remember, the greatest expense is often the money you don’t make. When sellers end up cutting the price or making concessions to a buyer, it’s usually because they don’t understand the comparative or competitive market conditions and have the misguided belief that “well, my property is different.”
There’s a saying in the real estate profession that says, “The market speaks.” Days to Offer is how the market tells you if your pricing strategy has worked. A true real estate professional will use both comparative and competitive analysis to guide you in the process.
For a closer look at Days to Offer trends in your community, explore the charts below.
REALITY CHECK: TIME F0R BUYERS AND SELLERS TO ADJUST TO MORTGAGE RATES
The last time the mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan was below 4 percent? March of 2022. Below 5 percent? April of 2022. 6 percent? September of 2022.
That was two years ago.
Nonetheless, it seems the general public can’t shake the belief that today’s rates (7.03 percent as of June 25) represent a recent phenomenon, or constitute a temporary trend.
Anyone waiting for a return to the rates of 2022 is almost certain to keep waiting. While there is reason to believe that rates could retreat in the coming months to the vicinity of 6.5 percent, serious economic forecasters are not predicting anything close to a return to the 2020-2022 years.
For anyone who has used interest rates as a reason to put a real estate decision on hold: we recommend following the advice of the legendary economist John Maynard Keynes, who is credited with the mic-dropping quip, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
The fact is that mortgage rates have changed. If you’re contemplating buying or selling, it’s better to base that decision on the new normal.
Call to talk about current mortgage conditions. Our Group Mortgage professionals are available to help answer questions.
GroupGives Back Day is one of our favorite days of the year. It provides an opportunity for our Group agents and staff to engage with the community and make a meaningful impact. On June 20, 2024, over 80 Group agents volunteered at various projects throughout Northern Colorado. We believe in giving back and helping to make our communities better for everyone.
Click HERE to learn more about GroupGives!
SWEET LIFE IN LARIMER COUNTY RECOGNIZED IN ‘BEST OF’ RANKINGS
If you live in Northern Colorado, you already know that it’s one of the best places in the country to reside and recreate.
And this is not just a local sentiment. A trio of recently published ranking reports have hopped on the Northern Colorado bandwagon.
Travel + Leisure magazine recognized Fort Collins as the best place to retire in Colorado thanks to its low property taxes, beautiful mountain scenery, and access to outdoor adventures. Colorado is considered tax-friendly for retirees, according to SmartAsset. The state provides for a deduction of $24,000 per year on retirement income, along with property taxes that are some of the lowest in the country. And Niche.com calls Fort Collins “one of the best places to live in Colorado.”
On its Best Places to Live in Colorado 2024-2025, U.S. News & World Report selected Fort Collins as the No. 3 best place in the state, behind Colorado Springs and Boulder. Colorado Springs received a lower quality-of-life score but scored higher on its overall value index, which measures how comfortably an average city resident can afford to live within their means. Boulder’s quality of life was rated slightly higher than Fort Collins but ranked significantly lower on affordability.
Perhaps you’re among the generations of visitors to Estes Park who have stopped at The Taffy Shop, where you can watch as fresh saltwater taffy is pulled and flavors or colors are added. Then you might appreciate that earlier this summer it was named the best candy story in the country by USA TODAY’s 10Best Reader’s Choice Awards. Since 1935, favorites have included Texas Pecan, vanilla, molasses, cinnamon, and lemon, now with daily flavors that might feature orange creamsicle or chocolate cherry. The shop was also selected in 2024 as Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards Best of the Best.
Throughout Larimer County, you can easily find the sweet life.
REAL ESTATE BY NUMBERS
- 36 percent. Share of Americans who said that real estate is the best long-term investment, according to a survey by Gallup. At 22 percent, stocks ranked second among the survey respondents.
- 12,700. Number of apartments that developers created in 2023 by converting buildings that were built for a different purpose, according to a report from RentCafe. That’s an increase of 18 percent over 2022, when about 10,800 apartment conversions were created. About one-third of those conversions happened at former hotels.
- $5.8 million. Sale price for 60 units of Section 8 subsidized affordable housing located in Eaton. The housing, which is spread across 10 buildings, was a Denver-based real-estate investor. Known as Benjamin Square, the 45-year-old development is located at 55 Juniper Ave. in Eaton.
- 45.8. Percentage of mortgaged homes in the U.S. where the owners are considered “equity rich” in the first quarter of 2024, according to ATTOM, a real estate data analysis firm. Owners are equity rich if their loan balance is less than half of the home’s market value.
- $14.2 million. Price that investors paid to buy a 108,000-square-foot industrial property in Frederick. The building, which includes 100,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 8,000 square feet of office space, is currently occupied by the sheet metal fabrication company Star Precision Manufacturing.
- $5.25 million. List price for the “Home Alone” house, located in the upscale Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Ill. The 9,126-square-foot house, the setting for the popular 1990 Christmas movie, was recently placed on the market.
- 24 percent. Increase in home listings in Colorado between May 2023 and May 2024, according to a report from the Colorado Association of Realtors. The median home price increased 4 percent statewide over the same period, CAR reported.
- 6. Where Denver International Airport ranks among the busiest airports in the world. It’s the third-busiest in the United States.
- $10 million. Price that the University of Colorado paid to buy the former Regal Cinebarre movie theater building in Louisville. As planned, the school will redevelop the site into student-oriented housing. The grounds around the theater span 8.8 acres.
- 67,817. Number of single-family homes and condominiums that owners flipped during the first quarter of 2024, according to a report by ATTOM, a real estate data analysis firm. That figure represents 8.7 percent of all home sales in the first quarter but is lower than the 9.8 percent share that occurred in the first quarter of 2023.
- 65.6 percent. The homeownership rate in the United States for the first quarter of 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, a slight decline from 66 percent for the first quarter of 2023.