Denver home prices down from year ago
(source: DenverPost.com)
“Denver and Dallas saw the smallest decline in home prices among cities surveyed in September compared with the same month a year ago.
Prices were down 1.2 percent in both metro areas, the smallest decline among the 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home- price index.
The 20-city index registered a month-over-month increase in September for the fourth straight month. The index increased 0.3 percent from August but was down 9.4 percent compared with the same period a year ago.
“While Colorado is in a recession, the housing market has not been hammered to the extent that other markets have,” said economist Jeff Thredgold of Vectra Bank Colorado. “Housing nationwide is stabilizing. The price adjustments are painful, but they are starting to stabilize.”
The Denver area’s numbers are better than the national figures because the region didn’t have the huge run-up in prices from 2003 to 2006 that other areas did. Still, Denver’s home prices dipped 0.5 percent compared with August, the first such drop in six months.”
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My concern is what effect the drop in prices at the high end of the market will have on the rest of the real estate market. The amount of inventory over $1m is incredible and if these people have to sell, they will have to dump the price in order to do it. Or they will be foreclosed on and the effect will essentially be the same after the bank puts it back on the market or sells it at auction.