This home at 3220 Zuni St. in Highland is priced at just over $1 million. It is listed by Dee Chirafisi of Kentwood City Properties.

Almost one out of every four homes sold and closed in the metro area in 2009 took place in Denver. And almost 30 percent of the homes sold above $1 million were in Denver.

An analysis of Metrolist data by independent broker Gary Bauer shows that 10,010 homes closed in the Denver area last year, accounting for 23.8 percent of the 42,027 home sales in the metro area last year. Arapahoe County was No. 2, with 8,230 single-family homes and condo closings last year.

That may not be too surprising.

“Denver usually seems to get the largest percentage of the buyers, except during the time when Douglas County was really growing like gangbusters,” Bauer said. During much of the 1990s, Douglas County was the fastest growing counties in the U.S. and is still one of the fastest. (Indeed, I remember writing a story at the Rocky Mountain News during the ’90s that Highlands Ranch in Douglas County accounted for one of five out of every new and used-homes sold.)

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said that given Denver’s size, Denver’s showing last year isn’t startling.

“Denver accounts for 22.2 percent of the metro area’s population,”  Hickenlooper said. “So we are doing a bit above that for home sales, but not much more. Denver is right about where it should be.”

Hickenlooper did say that a Realtor-friend recently mentioned to him that sales activity seems to have picked up recently.

Corey Wadley, a broker and co-owner of Nostalgic Homes in West Highland in northwest Denver, said that a lot of buyers are drawn to certain Denver neighborhoods because they think homes will retain their values more than suburban counterparts.

“In the Highland neighborhood, for example…our prices held stable during this recession,” Wadley said. “I think the biggest factor is homes  being able to hold values. There’s only a finite amount of new stuff in a place like Highland. I think also there is a uniqueness about Denver neighborhoods. You can walk street-by-street and see how the housing stock changed from different eras and from additions, renovations and even some scrape offs.”

Perhaps what was most surprising about Bauer’s report, is that Denver also dominated the $1 million and over price category. The 131 single-family homes and condos that sold and closed last year in Denver accounted for  28 percent of the 471 homes sold in that lofty price range. Arapahoe County, with 95  homes selling at $1 million or more and Douglas County with 67, accounted for 20 percent and 14 percent of that market, despite a number of high-end enclaves.

“That is a bit surprising,” said Chris Mygatt, president of  Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Colorado. In the past, he said, the vast majority of homes in that price range were in Arapahoe County,  because of the concentration of  huge homes in Cherry Hills and Greenwood Village.

“What I think what this is showing is a societal change,” Mygatt said. “It speaks to the idea that people who have a significant amount of money who are down-sizing or right-sizing, who are deciding  they do not need a half acre or an acre of land.  It’s never been more fashionable to be frugal.  Let’s face it:  Someone who is buying a million-dollar home is not spending their last million dollars on it. But they don’t want the expense of watering a giant lawn or keeping it clean, even if they can afford it. ”

He said the move to Denver from the suburbs is a trend he sees continuing. Mygatt said there are “too many 6,000-square-foot homes,” in the suburbs, and they will be increasingly difficult to sell.

“The smart developers are now building a very well-designed, very efficient 3,500-square-foot home instead of  a 6,000-square-foot home,” Mygatt said. “And the new homes are very, very green. ”

“That’s great,” about Denver, said Christina de Barros, of RE/MAX Masters. “It is a little surprising given that Arapahoe County has Cherry Hills and Greenwood Village and Douglas County has Castle Pines Village. ” Cherry Hills, for example, had 46 home sales of more than $1 million last year, while Cherry Creek in Denver, had seven, she said. And Boulder County (although not most of the city of Boulder), had a total of 126 home sales above $1 million, for 27 percent of that market, making it Denver’s closet competitor.

Some well-heeled buyers were picking up screaming, high-end deals last year, said Susan C. Mathews, a broker with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty.

“There were a lot of foreclosures, or more likely short sales, in places like Hilltop and Crestmoor,” Mathews said. “I saw homes that were originally priced at $2.25 million and up selling for $1.4 million or $1.5 million. And that was good. It helped us get some of this inventory off the market.”

She said high-end deals can still be found, but there are not as many as there were in 2009.

“I think consumer confidence is returning,” Mathews said. “People are not as afraid that prices are going to continue to drop if they buy now. I do think we are past the bottom.”

Wadley said that in northwest Denver, homes priced below $450,000 are selling, but it is tougher to move ones above that range.

“But Jenny (Apel,his wife and co-owner of Nostalgic Homes) did sell a William Lang mansion off Lowell (Boulevard) last year for $950,000,” Wadley said. “And I think that when homes that do sell in places like Cherry Hills for above the $1 million mark, they have been heavily discounted from their original asking price.” In fact, he said he thinks a lot of those ultra-expensive suburban homes are being sold at a loss.

Bauer said that one reason Denver dominates the luxury home market, is that empty nesters, who are  at the age and income level who can afford seven-figure homes, would rather live in an urban area than in a suburban community.

“I think part of it is the aging of the population,” Bauer said. “Many people are still working, and want to be closer to where they are working, which is often downtown.  They are down-sizing and their children are grown. For a large percentage of the population, Denver offers a chance to be close to the sporting facilities, theater, and everything else in downtown and LoDo.”

He pointed to Janet Elway as an example.

“With these $1 million-plus homes, people really want something special,” Bauer said. “Janet Elway went from a giant home in Cherry Hills to a Denver home in Belcaro.”

Source: Gary Bauer

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.

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There were 4,910 homes placed under contract in October, according to a report by independent broker Gary Bauer, who each month analyzes data supplied by Metrolist, which reflects homes sold by Denver-area Realtors. That eclipsed the previous October record of 4,839 homes placed under contract in 2005.

Based on demographics, it likely was the best October ever. The Denver-area population has grown by 49 percent from 1990 to 2007 (the latest numbers available), according to the Denver Regional Council of Governments. And the number of housing units from 1990 to 2007 in the area, grew by 40 percent. So with a much smaller base 19 years ago, it was unlikely that there were more sales in any October prior to 1990.

Bauer, at first, was even surprised by just how strong October was in terms of sales.

“Wow,” he said, when told by InsideRealEstateNews.com.

“It was an exciting October,” Bauer said. “There is a lot of pent-up demand out there. A lot of the activity had been driven by the tax credits for first-time home buyers. And now that that $8,000 credit for first-time home buyers has been extended, and expanded to include some existing home owners, I think we will see more people entering the market.”

A strong housing market helps not only those directly involved with it, but the entire economy, he said.

“For every $1 directly generated by the real estate economy, another $4 is created in the service industry,” Bauer said. “By that I mean, you buy a house and you buy furniture, TVs, garage-door openers. The list just goes on and on.”

Dee Chirafisi, the top Realtor in the Denver area last year and the co-owner of Kentwood City Properties, said she thinks the trend continued in November.

“Just in our office, we have seen an unbelievable number of houses placed under contract in October and November,” Chirafisi said. “We have twice as many homes that are going to close in November than we had a year ago.”

She agreed with Bauer and others that the home buying tax credit has been  accelerating sales.

“Most of it is because of first-time home buyers and the tax credits,” she said. “”Most of our sales are under $400,000, although we have the occasional high-end sale. I just closed a home in Hilltop for $2.97 million, for example.”

She said the extension and expansion of the tax credit to include some existing home owners, will continue to fuel the market.

“If you wanted a reason to buy a home, and you needed a little push, this is it,” she said.

With 30-year fixed mortgage rates below 5 percent, homes reasonably priced, and an extension and expansion of the tax-credit, it hard to imagine a better time to buy a home, she said.

“This is the best time ever to buy  a home,” Chirafisi said. “And there’s still plenty of homes to choose from, but I don’t know how much longer that is going to last. I think a lot of people are going to take their homes off the market for seasonal reasons, and are going to put them back on the market in the spring.”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.

Year	Under Contract	Closings
1990	2,069	2,294
1991	2,520	2,364
1992	3,215	3,054
1993	3,093	3,348
1994	2,439	3,279
1995	2,300	3,186
1996	2,842	3,197
1997	2,961	3,578
1998	3,528	3,795
1999	2,830	3,824
2000	2,821	4,499
2001	2,076	3,882
2002	2,306	3,931
2003	2,285	4,292
2004	2,731`	4,443
2005	4,839	4,174
2006	4,715	4,133
2007	4,645	3,848
2008	4,504	4,282
2009	4,910	3,958

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