Is this your perception of Colorado?! Read on...
Colorado is probably one of the most 4wd and SUV infested states in the 48 state area. It seems that the first thing folks do when relocating to Colorado is trade in their 2wd car for an expensive four wheel drive car or Sport Utility Vehicle in preparation for a “rugged Colorado winter.”
Subaru Outbacks, Lexus SUV’s, Land Rover’s, and of course plenty of different Toyota models seem to be the most popular choice for Colorado roads. The ironic thing, however, is that Colorado sees over 300 sunny days a year and a major snowstorm that is cause for not making it to the office only seems to happen once every few years. 98% of the time, you will do just fine with a front-wheel-drive car, and for the remaining 2% of the time, if conditions are really that bad, it won’t matter what kind of car you drive. In fact, Sport Utility Vehicles have one of the largest premium price markups in Colorado. Save your hard earned money and put it toward a hybrid – which will pay for itself in gas savings in a couple years if you typically put over 15,000 miles a year on your car. If you want to buy a car that will hold its own during the winter, just be sure not to get a rear wheel drive car. It’s the rear wheel drive cars you typically see stranded on the side of the road, and those cars are the reason everyone feels that it is necessry to get a four wheel drive car when they move to Colorado.
What I’m going to say is that I’m in contact with more than 5 . Inventory is very low, and demand has stayed the same. There are lots of buyers in the market that are having trouble finding homes to purchase and multiple offer situations are not uncommon right now if your home is well priced and well marketed. We’ve been seeing this trend develop all fall and if our local Fort Collins real estate market conditions continue, we’re going to actually enter a seller’s market.
What I’m not going to do is make long term predictions…I’ll leave that to Ben Bernanke(recently saying interest rates will be low into 2014).
Fox Business did do a piece declaring that right now Denver, CO is the best large city in the country to buy real estate. Fort Collins has very similar factors and the 4 min. clip is well worth the watch.
If you’re thinking about selling your home this could be a good time to do it. Contact a real estate professional and get an idea of what your home is worth in today’s market. You may be surprised since we’ve all become accustomed to hearing doom and gloom on the news but our market is healthy for sellers right now. Another significant point is our 2.2% rise in median sales price over 2o10. This reflects the fact that buyers are
Expect to be a little bit frustrated. If you go back and read any of my recent market reports, I’m going to sound like a broken record. Interest rates are low, prices are low, and now is a great time to buy. The caveat is, that since the number of homes for sale is so low right now, there is limited selection. If you’re a buyer right now, expect to be a little bit frustrated. Expect to have competition in the real estate market. And be ready. Have your financing in order and know what you can afford so that you can act when you do find the right home.
I just added the very powerful map-based search that you saw on my homepage when you visited my website. What you may not have realized is that this search has some very useful features to use if you’re thinking about selling your home as well. I created the video above to show you what I mean. It runs through how to find recent sales data and also request a comparative market analysis.
Sitting at the closing table trying to figure out how property taxes are calculated at the sale of a property can be quite confusing, especially since most of us aren’t in the habit of buying and selling our homes on a frequent basis. I ran across the following article from Guardian Title in Fort Collins summarizing how property taxes are dealt with at closing especially at this time of the year.
Posted with permission from Guardian Title—
by Guardian Title
Especially at this time of year, homeowners question how property tax certifications and payments will impact their closing. We’ve summarized this information to refresh you on the process in Colorado.
Counties assess and certify mill levies and tax amounts annually on real property. This process is typically completed the end of December or early in January. Tax notifications are sent out in January, and property owners have two options for payment. First, they may divide the amount into two installments with the first half of taxes due by February 28th and balance by June 15th. Second, they may pay the full amount on or before April 30th.
How does this affect your closing?
Depending on the time of year in which you close, there are several ways in which taxes will be accounted for at closing. One item found on settlement statements is a proration between buyer and seller. Since we pay taxes in arrears, the seller credits the buyer for the portion of the current year in which they have owned the property.
If the closing takes place early in the year before counties have certified mill levies, the closing agent will typically escrow 125% of the prior year’s tax amount (or use the most recent assessed value if higher). Escrows are held until the certified amount is available, taxes are then paid, and any excess amount is refunded to the seller. If the certified amount is available at closing, that amount will be collected and paid upon closing on the seller settlement.
If a lender is involved in the purchase early in the calendar year, they may request a different means of paying taxes other than in entirety by the seller on the HUD-1. Ultimately, the seller will either pay or credit the full amount due to the buyer on the settlement statement with varying line item descriptions.
What happens when tax payments have been sent to the county but not yet processed?
Tax escrows may be collected and held by the closing agent until the treasurer’s office is able to verify payments have posted for the property. Counties may take a few days to post payments near due dates because of the heavy volume. Once verification is received from the treasurer’s office, any excess escrows are returned to the seller.
On occasion, both the lender and closing agent may submit payments to the treasurer’s office particularly near due dates. If this occurs, then either the lender or closing agent will return the tax escrow to the seller after they receive funds from the treasurer. When closings happen near due dates, it may cause additional delay in refunds due to the high volume of payments being processed.
What is the owner’s responsibility in paying property taxes?
Failure to receive a tax notice does not relieve an owner’s responsibility for paying taxes on time. If you are purchasing a property near year end, please note that your tax statement could be delayed to correct for the new ownership. Closing agents and lenders are not liable for such tax payments, it is solely the responsibility of the property owner.
There is a website that lists the names and contact information, including websites, for the Colorado County Treasurer’s offices. Click this link to be connected…http://www.e-ccta.org/CCTA_
November 2001 Fort Collins Real Estate Market Report
Here in Fort Collins we continue to see a decline in the housing inventory available to home buyers. Especially in relation to available condos. In November 2011 compared to last year, the number of available single-family homes was down by 18% and the number of condos was down by 39%. Yes, I had to double check. There were 39% less condos available on the market in Fort Collins.
In general, the Fort Collins market has weathered the housing down turn much better than many other areas of the country. As the number of buyers in our market has decreased, so has our housing stock. In the last few months, we’ve actually been seeing our median sales price start to creep up a bit which means that the homes in the higher price ranges are slowly starting to sell better as well.
In addition to these numbers, the Northern Colorado Business Report wrote about statistics recently from the Bureau of Labor showing that the unemployment rate in the Fort Collins-Loveland metro area was 6.1% and the second lowest of all areas in Colorado behind only Boulder. That’s lower than the state average of 7.7% and the national average of 8.5%.
This dearth of housing inventory is magnified when you get into the lower price ranges. If you have a home for sale below $250,000 you will probably see a lot of interest and might even experience some indicators of a seller’s market. For sellers in the higher price ranges, we’re also seeing buyers slowly returning to the market. This means that your home that you couldn’t give away in 2009 will have some interested buyers although there is still heavy competition in the market.
Buyer’s in the sub 200 price ranges are going to be competing with investors for affordable housing stock. This is a good time to be a landlord and homes that are in a good location are getting snatched up quickly. Be ready. This means meeting ahead of time with a lender to see how much you can afford as well as knowing your timeline. Good deals can still be found, but it helps to do your homework, work with a Realtor you can trust, and know how much you can afford.
Real estate professionals make all kinds of promises and claims when it comes to winning your business. Mine is simple. If you’re not satisfied with the services I’m providing, you can cancel our listing agreement at any time.
The ability to cancel your listing agreement at anytime is rare in the real estate industry
My belief is that if your agent is doing their job and working hard, you won’t have any reason to cancel your listing agreement. If they’re not doing their job, you should have the right to find someone who will. My listing agreement protects sellers and gives them the right to cancel our agreement at anytime.
Did you know that hiring an agent to sell your home involves signing a contract (aka an “Exclusive Right to Sell”) that obligates you to that brokerage (not the agent) for a specific time frame outlined in the contract? Often this can be 6 months or even a year. This means that if you are not satisfied with the attention and service you’re receiving from your agent, you cannot simply fire them. This leaves all kinds of room for your agent to put a sign in your yard and well, slack off.
My marketing plan works. That’s why I can offer a cancel-anytime listing agreement. These days over 90% of home buyers are starting their property search online. To successfully sell your home, you need an agent that understands this changing landscape. That uses old techniques as well as new. That understands social media, search engine optimization, listing syndication, and much more. I know how to market your property.
To learn more or discuss my services in depth, please feel free to contact me at anytime.
Cheyenne is the Wyoming State Capital and source of many government, transportation, and light manufacturing jobs
Did you know that Cheyenne, WY is only a 40 mile, traffic-free commute from Fort Collins and has lots of good job potential? Although we’d all love to live and work in the same town, it’s pretty common for people living in Fort Collins to look for a job in other cities on the front range. All too often, they forget to look at Cheyenne as a viable source simply because it’s in another state. From Fort Collins it’s actually only 40 miles of virtually empty interstate to Cheyenne versus an often congested 60 miles to Denver. It’s even shorter if you live on the northeast side of Fort Collins.
Cheyenne is the state capital and also home to a large sector of government jobs. Warren Air Force Base is the largest employer with about 4,200 civilian and military employees. The federal government employs over 3,000 civilians and the state government employees about the same number. In addition, Cheyenne’s economy is based on transportation, light manufacturing, and agriculture. The largest private sector employer is Union Pacific Railroad and employees 800.
Commuting from Fort Collins to Cheyenne is an easy 40 mile drive on I-25
Some of the larger companies in Cheyenne include: United Medical Center, Union Pacific Railroad, Lowe’s Companies, Inc., Sierra Trading Post, Echo Star Communications, Frontier Refining, Wal-Mart, Little America, Hitching Post Inn, and Life Care Cheyenne.
I sat in on a great presentation recently by local Realtor, Linda Hopkins regarding the history of Fort Collins and was reminded of some valuable pieces of insight that could be very helpful to home buyers in Fort Collins. One of the most important things she pointed out today in her presentation on the history of Fort Collins city planning is the fact that we are a “north to south town”. What she meant by this is that Fort Collins started as a small agricultural community with its center near the intersection of Mountain and College. As the city grew, it generally developed south along College Avenue at a pace of about 1 mile per decade. As a result, driving through town, you can take a historic tour of sorts and see the different building styles that have influenced us through our decades of growth.
Generalized building development by decade in Fort Collins
When you first take a glance at a map, it shouldn’t take you long to realized that our city is laid out in a logical, grid like fashion. In Fort Collins there are arterial streets and there are collector streets. It turns out that our arterial streets are each laid out exactly one mile apart from each other. From north to south these streets are Mulberry, Prospect, Drake, Horsetooth, and Harmony. From east to west they are Timberline, Lemay, College, Shields, Taft, and Overland.
Eastborough home built in 1985
Focusing on the neighborhoods near College Ave, you can develop some basic expectations of what to expect in home design, lot size, and features as you tour different neighborhoods. Here’s a basic summary of the areas of development by decade.
Last month I wrote about how we are seeing a decrease in available inventory and an increase in the median price per sale in both the Fort Collins and Loveland housing markets. Today I pulled October 2011 sales statistics for the Fort Collins area from the Colorado Association of Realtors and found that as I suspected, this trend continued into October.
As inventory declines, demand increases. Although the buyer pool is seasonally lower right now, so is the number of homes on the market. This means that it’s actually not a bad time to put your home on the market. Although you won’t see pre-2007 appreciation it will probably be encouraging to know that the sky isn’t falling. These numbers we see from October show signs of stability in our Fort Collins market.
Another benefit of listing your home in the Fall is the advantage of the holiday season. Families get together for the holidays and often end up looking for homes. A positive about the “off season” that is often overlooked is the fact that buyers that are looking for homes right now are usually serious about purchasing. Even though the number of showings may decline, they are usually higher quality showings.
Just as I said last month, this still a great time to buy. I’ll also reiterate a few things to be aware of. It may feel like there are less good options available to you in the market, especially if you’re looking under ~$350,000. Many people are waiting for good deals and when they show up, there is competition for them. What this means is that it pays to be ready when the time comes. This means getting pre-qualified and being comfortable with your anticipated price range. When it comes time to make an offer, you’ll be ready to make a good decision.
The number of condos sold in Oct. 2011 increased by 27% over 2010
Condo sales were interesting to look at. The number of sales climbed and the median price dropped considerably. This may be obvious, but as you look at the numbers, what you see is that there was an increase in the number of lower cost units. I suspect that this is a result of increased investor activity combined with the fact that rental rates are increasing making it advantageous to buy, especially in this price range.
Median Sales Price Comparisons
Total # of Active Single Family Listings (Down 16%)
Total # of Active Condo Listings (Down 34%)
Today's Snow. The inspiration for this post.
It looks like we’ve got another 6 to 8 inches of snow on the ground this morning. Unless you’ve been living in complete isolation, you’re probably well aware that winter is quickly approaching us in Northern Colorado. Especially after last week’s snowpocalypse that brought down tree limbs across Fort Collins . All this means is that if you haven’t started to winterize your home, you’d better get started!
Here’s a few important things to do to ensure that your home stays in great shape and to avoid costly repairs down the road.
1. Blow out your sprinkler system – I’m sure if you have a sprinkler system you are probably well aware of this. However, if you bought a house anytime this summer and have never had a sprinkler system, this may be something you’ve overlooked. The typical sprinkler blowout will cost between $40 and $60.
2. Clean out your gutters – After the leaves fall off the trees, do a quick check to make sure that your gutters are free of leaves, twigs, and any other debris that would inhibit them from effectively draining the water off your roof.
3. Check for drafts around windows and doors – When the first real cold snap hits and you need to shut up the house, take a few minutes and run your hand around the edges of your doors and windows. If you find spots where cold air is coming into your home you might need to install some weather stripping from the hardware store. A typical place for drafts is the bottom of your exterior doors. If you have a gap on the floor you’ll either need to install a sweep or threshold that will fill this gap.
4. Clean & inspect your furnace – At the very least install a new furnace filter to ensure that the air in your home is clean. This is something you should do monthly throughout the winter as well. If you haven’t looked at your furnace for a while, it’s a good idea to have an HVAC professional come out and give your furnace a tune-up. This will typically cost around $100.
5. Wrap pipes - First, turn off the water to your exterior pipes so they don’t freeze when the cold hits. The last thing you want is a pipe to burst on the coldest day of the year. Secondly, if you have pipes that are either on the exterior of your home or travel through unheated spaces like crawl spaces, it’s a good idea to wrap them in foam that you can get from the hardware store.
If you’ve got good recommendations I haven’t considered, please feel free to email them to me. I’d love to add them to this post if possible.
I’m very excited about this new listing that I will be presenting as soon as next week. I included a few pictures for anyone interested in Old Town Fort Collins loft style living. There’s so much I love about this place. Plenty of natural light, hardwood floors, 9 ft. ceilings, a unique loft style office that opens to a spacious rooftop patio. This premium location also has great front range views and is a stone’s throw away from the poudre river trail.
If you’re interested feel free to give me a call and we’ll set up a preliminary tour.
123 N College Ave Suite 200, Fort Collins, CO 80524 | © 2011 Kenny Layton
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