Evergreen, CO Realtors in all markets including luxury are still seeing low inventory for the start of the 2018 spring season. Evergreen and the Denver Foothills are seeing low inventory levels like they haven’t seen in many years. Although there is a little uptick this month Evergreen and the Denver Foothills is still way lower inventory and active listings than anytime in the last 5 years. This is making it hard for buyers across all price points. Sellers are already seeing multiple offers on homes in the upper prices. Many Realtors in Evergreen and surrounding areas are starting to advise clients to broaden their search area and also maybe take a few items off their buyer “wish list”. It is getting to the point that if you really desire living in the Denver Foothills or Evergreen you will need to either pay top dollar for your new home or sacrifice some amenities that aren’t as important to you or your family.
What do Realtors think about this market?
Although some Realtors might say that this is a good market to be in. I tend to disagree. We are not seeing enough sales and data to support the value that the homes are selling for. Realtors are also seeing comparable prices not keeping up with the offers. When that happens appraisers sometimes can’t verify the home is worth what someone is offering. A lot of times appraisers are unable to say the the market is determining a home is worth list price even if there are multiple offers at that price or even above on the property. Some Realtors will argue, and rightfully so, if 4 people make an offer on a property at asking price, that is the market telling you that is the value of that home. Unfortunately appraisers and banks don’t see things the way the rest of the world does. The average purchase price has climbed from about $300,000 to $600,000 in the last five years. The value has almost doubled. This is not a healthy climb for any type of market. There is a point that after the 2 years of cap gains forgiveness is up that people will begin to “cash in” on the biggest investment they own. This is when we will see home values drop. NAR has found that the average time an owner stays in a home is about 5 years. That would mean that between the short attention span of people and them wanting change and the huge amount of capital that has been built up in their home, it is most likely that people will flood the market with listings. It is only a matter of time before people will see more listings coming on and the values drop or at least level off. Colorado has a lot of room to start building. It isn’t an island that has no more room to expand. There are hundreds of thousands of acres that can be developed.