In a time where feedback and results are expected to be instantaneous it becomes difficult to zoom out and slow down for bigger goals down the road. Homeownership is one of those daunting areas. Even the basics of buying a home such as solid credit scores, proof of funds, and occupational history make people run for the figurative back door.

How do you eat a whale? Well, assuming you do consume the large mammal it would have to be one bite at a time. The homeownership process is the same. Tackle one objective at a time.

Low hanging fruit objectives:

Establishing a written motivation

Credit score work

A basic savings program

Healthy accountability relationships

By practicing productive patience we are able to enjoy the fruits of delayed gratification. It is worth it.

Have a great day!

Low interest rates, coronavirus predominantly affecting lower income earners, insane appreciation due to high volumes of high priced/luxury items sold.

As well as a couple things in 2021 what we can look forward to being ready for:

More entry level items on the market, still low (but not as low) interest rates, price appreciation still going up but not as explosively as 2020.

Have a great new year!

Overall:

Rent Vacancy low right now at around 5% and vacancy on units themselves has actually decreased by a slight margin.

In terms of rental units themselves we are seeing companies raise rents nationwide even faster than they did after the housing crash. Renters are seemingly willing to pay more to accomodate a home office or outdoor space.

2,100 new apartment units were added and we filled 2,900. The supply doesn't have a chance of keeping up with the demand currently.

Forbearance update - As forbearance begins to run out and tenants are obligated to pay or go into delinquency more folks are paying their rent with credit cards. 4% of households are delinquent in their payments. One important thing to note is that those in Colorado who are delinquent will in the vast majority of times be able to sell and make it out debt free due to their gained equity.

Growth in loan applications to purchase higher end homes have been remarkable. The barrier to entry is lower for higher end buyers and with interest rates where they are the dollar goes a long way.

For First-time homebuyers we are seeing rents just not go down significantly. Even within the last studied recessions rents only went down in one year (2007). Rent growth has slowed and it will be interesting to see what landlords will do if another round of covid hits us. However, until then we are seeing it is still more than worth it to go about the trouble of buying a house to pay a mortgage instead of a monthly rent.

Numbers are looking great for sellers with 30% fewer days on market, % of asking price being met, or more than not, exceeced, and very finite amount of inventory. This all points to sellers getting the price, time frame, and confidence that they would want in terms of negotiation.

It must be noted that some folks who are holding are beginning to come to market, however this isn't nearly enough to keep up with the buyer demand in CO.

Our numbers with under contract listings are up 27% from last year.

Our number of closed homes is up 17% from last year.

Price - Up 12% from last year (remember the high volume of high-priced items being sold and the severe lack of entry-level or lower priced homes being sold.

Showing trends in both Denver and CO Springs are at 4 year highs!

1. The average price of a home in Denver as of the end of August was just above $600k. This breaks previous Denver records for average home price, yet it is skewed due to higher priced inventory selling rapidly (this is due to the perfect trade-up buying market with low interest rates, high equity, and more inventory out for higher priced segments).
2. The average price for a home in Denver will most likely drop in late 2020 and possibly throughout 2021, most likely causing a lot of media headlines and consumer confidence in the market to shake a bit. This will likely be due to an increase in lower-priced homes being brought to the market, leveling out the distribution from the recent mainly high-valued homes with that of homes in the price range of $500k and less.
3. In an election year we historically have a 15% drop in the number of sales in the 6 weeks prior to an election. This isn't too much of a difference when considering that non-election years have a seasonality cycle of a 10% dip in homes sales.

Side note: Interest rates usually go up 1/2 a percent following a presidential election.

1. Single-family residential starts are strong right now. More builders are putting up new homes than they have in previous years.
2. Businesses continue to close, with a surprising amount closing their doors permanently. From mom and pop businesses to spas, gyms, and restaurants.

One strong piece of news, and one that is less than fuzzy feeling. The economic timult that is currently still underway is causing a lot of frustration and stress for businesses and families.

We can help our small businesses by shopping local. That is what I plan to do.

The answer is, according to the statistics currently available, is that they aren't coming. 3% of homeowners across the US are underwater on their mortgages, while the other whopping 97% have enough equity in their homes to sell in the standard fashion to downsize or come up with a more cost efficient housing option.

Since there aren't a seeming abundance of foreclosures coming on the market my tip is to start lining things up for the potential for entry-level housing opportunity. Higher priced items have been selling like crazy, while the 300k - 500k price range is seeing a massive struggle with inventory. As coronavirus is dealt with, the presidential election wraps up, and confidence in the market improves we will see those entry-level priced homes begin to come back on the market.

The only problem is that there's so much competitions in Colorado housing that even with more inventory available we will still be in a sellers market due to the sheer number of folks buying homes in CO.

We find that in an average year seasonality begins to kick in between October to November, resulting in about a 10% decrease in real estate activity, whereas in an election year we see that number increase to 15%.

This means that consumer sentiment seemingly becomes more hesitant as we approach a possible shift in government leadership

However, these are not "lost" listings, simply deferred. We will most likely see lower cost homes bouncing back to market and great real estate activity early next year so long as there is still an ability to leverage other benefits of home purchasing now such as low interest rates.

Job growth and consumer sentiment are more important than the presidential election itself.

Cool Tidbit: The year after a presidential election tends to be the best year for real estate during the 4 year cycle. Be ready!

We can anticipate a strong month for closings in September due to the high number of Under Contract listings that came from August. Seasonality is beginning to kick in from the delayed burst of real estate activity caused by Covid, meaning that the surge in pandemic buyers and sellers is slowing down.

A severe lack of low priced inventory is still creating a problem for entry level buyers, and the average price of homes in Colorado are still trending upwards as more high priced homes sell disproportionately to the low priced sales.

Lower priced homes (500k>) may have a surge of activity in Spring of 2021 due to the emotional and economic delay that disproportionately affected entry level products.

Tony is the head of Summit Property Advisors of Your Castle Real Estate, which I am a member of. Represent son.

What skills do you need as a Realtor to properly serve the real estate investor world? It turns out a lot!

On the rental end we find that we need to be able to articulate and show comprehension of cap rates, year one cash-on-cash, simple ROI, and other investor minded information such as high level cash-flow analyses. We need to be able to service our unique market by knowing important statistics such as: typical rents and how they cary, typical vacancy rates in your market, and how different assets function over time in specific areas.

On Fix & Flips as need to be able to know the neighborhood with the best gross margins, where is the highest ROI, what is typical marketing time in that area, networks beyond the MLS, and well as projections of rudimentary cash flows.

Additionally we go into the client education and support skills needed to work with real estate investors. Guiding a novice investor by educating the, and "bringing the investor along". Articulating why real estate investment is a suitable area to invest in over stocks and bonds is also an important skill.

Lastly, we go into the transaction skills needed which range from understanding a 1031 tax-defferred exchange to knowing how owner-occupant contracts and disclosures differ from each other.

If you have a listings, get it live before labor day or else historically speaking there will be much less traffic. Yes, even in COVID we seem to be following that cycle. The rebound in June and July that saw more listings than in Aug of 2019 are coming to an end.

Moving forward it is looking like inventory will continue to decrease, entry level products will feel the brunt of this. Average home price went up a lot this last month due to more high price homes selling and less entry level products.

Entry level - Super low inventory, great mortgage interest rate, ultra competitive, drives prices up for entry level products. Considering the below 3% interest rate average currently it makes sense to by as soon as possible to make your dollar go further. If prices decline mortgage rates are more likely to go up, leaving you with less house and the same payment.

Trade-Up - Incredible time for trade-up buying. You will experience a nice sellers market while also being able to take advantage of the higher prices items with higher inventory levels.

Luxury - Good Opportunity with hot sellers market driving prices up while a higher level of inventory keeps the buyers coming in strong.

Investors - No foreclosures or short sales soon according to payment data. Target stale listings

Most Colorado homes have enough equity in them that if any problems arise they can simply sell their home. If increased financial pressure forces lenders to ask for forbearance payments proper it may then fuel some potential cascading effects, however currently Colorado does not look like there is in an imminent threat of a flood of foreclosures the market. This may change as we move among these tumultuous times, but pretty decent news for us here in Colorado!

We see that inventory is low everywhere, however record deals are coming. We go over vacancy rates, rent prices, investor apartment statistics, and more info into the real estate market in Colorado amidst COVID-19 in middle of 2020.

It was awesome to go through this information today and it drastically helps in both looking for properties for clients and investors in real estate, but also gives great insight I can use working as a project manager for Timeless Custom Homes.

The first uses a report from a London based global information provider IHS Markit to show how Denver is fairing very well amongst the world in wage growth and small business employment growth despite the covid 19 pandemic.

The second article is about how many folks are buying second homes up in the resort towns with the intent to live in them, as opposed to vacation there during breaks. This then breaks into far more than just a boom in real estate transactions, but the question about infrastructure and accommodations for permanent residents. The answers very well may still be up in the air as to school enrollment and such, but the real estate up there sure is selling!

Links:

Article 1: https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2020/08/04/denver-small-business-employment-wage-growth.html?ana=e_ae_set1&j=90522313&t=Afternoon&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWW1NeE5HUTNPRFEzTmpneSIsInQiOiJ1NUF4eFJBUGIxUkoyNW1ORHF0N3Fvakh3Wk5jeEVaa2gwNW5uQVlPd1MzNjFTSGNjMHlNc3BaaE1SNXRqVWZDS0FDVmNoak9seUFyMzhWRnU2N2RLb1lVaG9UOTZXK3k2Wml6SEFFVmFKOHJJUmtBTkw1VmxnM3d6b3MzXC96TTIifQ%3D%3D

Article 2: https://www.summitdaily.com/news/the-great-urban-exodus-colorado-resort-towns-see-flood-of-second-home-buyers-burst-in-school-enrollment/

Overall, Colorado continues to gain people from other states, older people aren't moving, and inventory is staggeringly low. It is truly difficult for low wage earners or renters to enter the market currently.

Notable Covid 19 impacts are the decrease in births, increase in deaths, folks moving out of CO into cheaper states, yet also still mmigration primarily from CA, FL, and NY. Rural CO could potentially open up to more residents as work-from-home efforts are found to be compatible with a lifestyle away from the direct city.