High-end homes gain in 2010

Expensive homes ruled last year.

The sale of $1 million-plus homes in the Denver area showed the biggest percentage gain in 2010 from 2009, shows a report released today by independent broker Gary Bauer.

While the overall home sales market was down last year, the $1 million-plus range showed more than a 12 percent gain from 2009, bucking the trend for the overall market.

Low-end sales slid

Indeed, in the 11-county area, which includes Boulder, Clear Creek, Park, Gilpin and Elbert counties, in addition to the six other Denver-area counties, sales in the $100,000 to $200,00 range were down 33.6 percent last year, compared with 2009.

And in the six-county area of Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson, sales under $100,000 were down 24.5 percent.

Low-end homes, the favorites of investors and fix-and-flippers in 2009, were scarcer commodities in 2010, because of the demand the year before, Bauer noted.

“There is a scarcity of inventory at the lower end,” Bauer said, adding that demand also has driven up prices.

High-end bar low last year

Edie Marks, who last year sold about $25 million in homes, compared with $20 million in 2009, said there is a simple reason that the most expensive homes gained ground last year.

“That’s because we were going from zero,” said Marks, a broker with the Kentwood Co. “In 2009, we got slammed. In 2010, prices were significantly cut and now they’re selling.”

Last year, 529 homes priced at more than $1 million sold in the 11-county area, compared with 471 in 2009. In the six-county area, 391 homes sold in that price category, compared with 345 in 2009.

Marks, who currently is listing homes from about $250,000 to $9 million, said the same trend will continue this year.

A McMansion-movie would be a slasher- film

“Anyone who wants to make a move, is going to make it now,” Marks said. “If people really want to sell their homes, they will be slashing prices. If they are not willing to take a loss, they will not sell.”

However, she noted that Esprit Homes, headed by Steve Shraiberg, is raising the price of the new homes in its One Cherry Lane project in the Denver Tech Center, because of the rising cost of labor, as well as commodities such as lumber and drywall. Marks said he is only able to do that because much of Esprit’s existing inventory has been sold, and there is still demand for that kind of upper-end housing in the Tech Center.

Many luxury resale homes are taking big haircuts, though.

She has a buyer bidding $2.9 million for one home, which cost the current seller $3.9 million.

Stocks gains help

Not only are prices attracting the well-heeled buyers, but also the luxury housing market is gaining strength with the rising stock market, she said.

“Later this year, some people may take some profits in stocks and put it toward homes, which will help,” she said.

Bauer said the upper-end market also got a boost last year because there was more jumbo loan financing available last year, compared with 2009. Jumbo mortgages are for homes priced above the conventional loan level of $417,000.

The latest figures showed the counties with the most closings, in order, were:

Denver, with 8,459, down 15.5 percent from 2009.
Arapahoe, 7,459, down 9.4 percent.
Jefferson, 6,412, down 5.25 percent.
Adams, 5,458, down 19.1 percent.
Douglas, 4,587, down 2.5 percent.

Only two counties showed more sales in 2010 than in 2009. Elbert county had 328 sales and Park had 293, up 4.1 percent and 0.69 percent, respectively.

Bauer’s analysis did show some similarities between 2009 and 2010. The largest number of home closings in both years were in the $100,000 to $199,999 range. And homes priced under $300,000 accounted for 71 percent of the sales. Single-family homes accounted for 78 percent of all sales with condos representing 22 percent.

Breaking the numbers down by price bands last year:

11 percent of the sales were below $100,000.
33 percent were from $100,000 to $199,999.
27 percent were from $200,000 to $299,999.

Overall, there were 38,025 home closings last year in the 11-county area, 10.65 percent fewer than the 42,558 in 2009, according to Bauer’s report released today. The numbers are slightly different than the Metrolist numbers Bauer released on Friday, because for today’s analysis he used data from three MLS’s to include sales in other counties, and removed duplicates

“But the most important thing in any data set is the trends they show, as opposed to the exact numbers,” Bauer noticed. Both data sets showed a drop in sales from 2010 from 2009. Also, while sales were down last year, overall prices were up, in a large part because of the mix of homes sold last year, Bauer noted.

County	$0-$100,000	$100,000-$200,000	$200,000-$300,000	$300,000-$500,000	$500,000-$750,000	$75,0000-$1,000,000	$1,000,000-+	Total
Adams	975	2,856	1,125	422	64	11	5	5,458
Arapahoe	1,200	2,820	1,952	1,040	252	71	124	7,459
Boulder	97	904	970	1,263	538	143	133	4,048
Broomfield	1	190	257	245	63	9	6	771
Clear Creek	24	37	33	23	8	3	2	130
Denver	1,266	2,774	1,848	1,742	523	172	134	8,459
Douglas	81	630	1,651	1,575	439	126	85	4,587
Elbert	27	70	94	106	30	1	-	328
Gilpin	16	29	21	11	2	-	1	80
Jefferson	474	2,074	2,070	1,345	339	73	37	6,412
Park	48	124	85	32	1	1	2	293
TOTAL	4,209	12,508	10,106	7,804	2,259	610	529	38,025