Denver Living in the City

We stopped taking the newspaper a few months ago. What I miss most about the daily rag is the comics, which I guess goes to show you just how valuable the daily was in my life. Oddly enough, about the same time, I stopped watching the 10 o’clock news, which is now the “all the time” news, so I am no longer in touch with the talking heads of broadcast media. So, it was a bit unusual that as I was waiting for my plane home after an out of town conference a few days ago, I was idly watching a talking head on a television in the terminal. The talking head was speaking in sad tones about the state of the economy and mentioned in passing the national real estate market having lost XXX trillions of value in the last few years. It suddenly occurred to me that the talking head did not understand the concept of a market, as he was just reading the script. So goes my inspiration for this article.

According to Webster, a market (from the Latin -mercatus), is “a meeting together of people for the purpose of trade by private purchase“. Further, a market is a geographic area of demand for commodities or services. Real Estate is defined as property in buildings or land. So, a “real estate market” is “a meeting together of people in a geographic area for the purposes of purchasing buildings or land“. What the media is constantly referring to as “the real estate market” is really a reference to housing data compiled from thousands of markets to present simple and reportable national averages that can be addressed in 30 or 60 second sound bites.

In the Denver area real estate market, as with most markets nationwide, there are really many “markets”. Certainly there are many geographic markets, with values in neighborhoods such as Washington Park remaining steady, and values in Green Valley Ranch plummeting due to excessive foreclosures.There are new development projects such as The Landmark in Greenwood Village that are selling as fast as the builder can finish them, and other new home projects that are not selling at all. There are also markets stratified by price. Today, in Metro Denver, the price bracket of $100,000 to $200,000 is actually a sellers market, with multiple offers presented on some properties, and sales well over asking price on many bank owned homes. However, there is a glut of million dollar plus homes, with sales slowed to the level of watching grass grow.

And the “real estate market” is very dependent on another market, the “monetary” or “credit” market. With the worldwide money market in complete disarray, the housing market, as well as every other market, is captive to the lack of available credit.

The “real estate market” is much too individually specific, much to complicated, and much to local to accept what the talking heads are spewing on the nightly news. If you have need to buy or sell real property, you must take time to understand the market as it applies to your specific needs. You might want to spend time with a knowledgeable Realtor® and have an extended conversation about how your specific needs relate to the “market”.

Written by Larry D. McGee, Denver Realtor - Visit Website Sphere: Related Content

As the congressional debate continues over the crafting of the what will probably become known as “Bailoutgate” or something equally absurd, I offer a few comments on today’s “bailout” news:

Bloomberg had a nice little interview with Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) wherein Frank noted that part of the plan would include punitive restrictions on CEO’s financial compensation. This is really just positioning for creating regulatory restrictions on executive compensation that is currently based on share value rather than business accomplishment. The fear that all business leaders should have is that the finger pointing is going to affect everything in business. I would expect the bailout is going to happen, Congressman Frank noting that there is little choice but to support the idea, subject to some wrangling over the details. But the cost of the bailout will not end with the 700 billion price tag. The real cost will be regulatory zeal on a scale not seen since the 1930’s. Think of the financial crises as an unexpected fire in a crowded building, with Congress acting as untrained firefighters. Water will be sprayed everywhere but on the fire.

Just how the “bailout” will affect the housing market is any body’s guess. At the moment, the overall national housing market has lost perhaps 10% of the value it had in late summer of 2006. Of course 10% is just an educated guess, with some local markets having lost much more or slightly less. What is true is that most people are continuing to make their mortgage payment and, once the bleeding stop, the stability of those paying customers will provide the basis for a recovery. As I noted on Saturday, most people do want to own their home if possible. I believe that the home building industry will take a few years to recover, but as a builder once told me, builders build, and they will begin again as soon as possible. The public at large will begin buying homes again, for the same life cycle reasons they have always bought them.

To put a point on it, my lovely wife just returned from a convention in Vegas, where, she noted, there were mobs of people spending bushels of money. The difficulty today is that people would rather spend money playing in Vegas than buying big ticket items. Congress, recognizing that fact, and that the United States is a consumer economy, will pass the “bailout”, so that the American consumer starts spending money on Main Street. Then, watch out for the regulatory monster. It will come with indiscriminate fury.

Written by Larry D. McGee, Denver Realtor - Visit Website Sphere: Related Content

Join us on Sunday, September 21st from 12:00 to 5:00 for a neighborhood open house tour featuring some of the areas most exciting new developments!  Each site will have food, drinks and the opportunity to tour each project. You have the opportunity to visit 16 different new contruction projects in the Lower Highlands (LoHi) and Jefferson Park neighborhoods.  A few of these are “hardhat tours” so be sure to wear your comfy shoes! The tour will conclude at Pasquini’s (32nd and Zuni) where prizes to local restaurants will be auctioned off and just in case you didn’t fill up during the tour, you can sample some of their wonderful pizza!

Participating developments include;

3131 Zuni, 3505 Osage, 3650 Osage, Confluence Heights, Flats 15, Highland Bridge Lofts, Highland Views, HiVu29, Jefferson Park Townhomes, LoHi Lofts, Q36, Q-Mod, RiverClay, Sprocket on Wyandot, Shoshone Heights and the Wyandot Townhomes.

This open house tour is for neighbors, buyers, brokers, and anyone else that is interested in learning more about new construction projects in the LoHi neighborhood.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions and I hope to see you all on Sunday!

Written by Kimberly Beethe - Visit Website Sphere: Related Content

Lofts can be named many things to describe the unique features that urban dwellers demand but a true loft in downtown Denver seems to be harder and harder to come by as more brand new developments get added to the ever-growing urban real estate landscape of Denver.

The Berkshire Group is marketing a true, hard loft and it is just so unique that we decided the best way to share it is with a video tour. The former life of the building, the city views into Coors Field and the prime location next to Riverfront Park and Ballpark make this unit a downtown dwellers dream.

For complete details on this Watertower Loft please visit www.incalofts.com

Written by Vali Wimberly - Visit Website Sphere: Related Content