Here be Dragons

For many price points and areas, the typically slower summer remains red-hot in Boulder County. Surprisingly, in the middle of a global pandemic and a divisive election year, the County is seeing a higher percentage of homes under contract than we’ve seen since 2016 and we may still be climbing! We did have a strong start to the year and then a dramatic COVID lockdown drop followed by a strong release of pent up buyer demand. Here’s the % UC chart.

I believe a lot of this market strength can be attributed to the very low levels of homes available on the market, only 500 single family homes available for sale in the last week of July, a lower point for this time of the year than I’ve never seen . With fewer sellers and strong buyer demand, the market reacts. Another aspect of the low levels of home sellers, buyers are fighting over the available homes, and with the special homes, the competition can become fierce. This strong buyer demand is helped by the very low mortgage rates and our very strong, pre-pandemic employment levels.

Like the Federal Reserve though, I get a little nervous about making predictions of where we’re headed compared to reading the pulse of where we stand today. From the most recent FOMC statement, “The path of the economy will depend significantly on the course of the virus.” I strongly believe in the stability of the Boulder County market but this fall and winter will make for very interesting market watching as we possibly move into terra incognita. I don’t necessarily mean this as a negative, some of our metrics are moving into territory signifying market strength that we’ve never seen before. Always interesting to jump off into the unknown.

Be well and watchful!