Colorado Mortgage Activity Picks Up

As the summer months roll in, Colorado Realtors are working to keep up with the increased pace.

“Well, I’ve gotten really busy in the last month,” said Norma McMillen, a Colorado mortgage broker for The Group Inc. “People like to get moved in the summer when the weather is good, and that’s when houses look good for showing, too. Our office, in general, has been busy lately.”

During the summer, Realtors often see a 25 percent increase of homes in the market compared with the spring, said Nate Buie, a broker for The Group Inc.

While activity goes up in the summer, overall sales in 2007 have been down so far, said Chalice Springfield, CEO of Sears Real Estate.

In 2007, there have been 844 homes sold in Greeley and Evans and there were 894 home sales in the same time in 2006 - about a 6 percent reduction in Colorado housing market sales, Springfield said.

Also, the Greeley area is still far away from its peak of home sales. The area hit a record high in 2001 when there were 284 sales in August 2001. In August 2006, there were 173 sales.

“That was a pretty big drop,” Buie said.

According to Information and Real Estate Services, LLC. Greeley has a nine-month inventory of homes to sell. Nationally, anything above a six-month supply is considered a buyer’s market.

“The Greeley market in 2007 is still favoring buyers at this time,” Springfield said. “If there are more homes for sale and less [mortgage loan borrowers] to purchase those homes, it will affect the time period in which sellers are able to sell homes.”

She said it’s a great time for buyers looking for a home, but sellers need to price their homes right and make sure that homes are in top-notch condition for selling.

Part of the reason for so many homes on the market was an influx of home building that outpaced growth in the area and also a foreclosure rate so high it led the nation for five months at the end of 2006. Home prices are brought down in areas where there are a lot of Colorado home loan defaults, McMillen said.

“That does affect the price of homes that are not in foreclosure, making it tougher to sell,” she said.

Though it has dropped in national rankings, the number of foreclosures haven’t. Weld has had more foreclosures this year than in the same time last year.

Still, statistics show that there is light at the end of the tunnel, Buie said. There were more home sales in April and May of 2007 than there were in April and May of 2006, he said.

“That was the first reversal of the downward (trend) than I have seen in a while,” he said.

Also, the median sales price in Greeley and Evans combined has gone up slightly, about 0.57 percent in May 2007 compared to May 2006. It’s not much, but it’s something, he said. From May 2005 to May 2006 in Greeley and Evans, the median price had dropped by 3.66 percent.

Still, said Springfield, the market will probably be tough for just a while longer.

“Activity has certainly picked up due to the seasonal activity and we are hoping to make strides in closing the overall gap in 2007,” she said. ” That being said, many believe that 2007 will continue to be a challenging year for our housing market and that 2008 looks more promising for a stronger [home mortgage] market.”

SOURCE: The Greeley Tribune