Realtor Stephanie Fix analyzed short-sale data.

More than 3,300 Denver-area home sellers in the Denver area avoided foreclosure last year by completing a short sale, almost a 19 percent increase from 2009, according to a report released today.

Stephanie Fix, a broker with RE/MAX Professionals in Cherry Creek, analyzed data from Metrolist.

“I’m pretty confident in these numbers,” Fix said, with one caveat. “I pulled these numbers from Metrolist, so they are as accurate as Metrolist. So there might be a little bit of an error factor.” A short sale is when a lender agrees to accept a sales price for less than what is owned on the mortgage.

County breakdown

In the five counties she analyzed – Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson – she found a total of 3,332 short sales. Her numbers include single-family homes, townhomes and condos.  Short sales accounted for 9 percent of all closings.

Fix estimates 60 percent to 70 percent of her transactions last year were short sales. She is a Certified Distressed Property Expert, or CDPE.

Jefferson County, with 517 short sales, saw the biggest year-over-year percentage increase, rising 25 percent from 2009. Arapahoe County had the most short sales with 884, or 26.5 percent of the total.

20 luxury home short sales

She also found that 20 of the home short sales were for $1 million or more. The most expensive short sale was in Castle Pines Village at $2.45 million. The majority of them – 81 percent – were priced at $250,000 or below.

Fix was surprised there were not more seven-figure short sales last year. Fix currently is listing a short sales home in Cherry Creek with a $1.457 million mortgage, and she knows of a couple of other short sales in that area.

While most of her work is in Denver, last year she sold a home in Plum Creek in Castle Rock for $850,000, which had previously sold for about $2.5 million. It had a first mortgage of about $1.8 million and a second mortgage of about $245,000.

She said one number that is bandied around is that banks typically will accept 85 percent of the market value in a short sale.

“But it is really difficult to say,” Fix said. “I don’t know what algorithms banks used to determine what price  they will accept. But typically, they are not fire-sale prices.”

Short sales growing

Fix, however, thinks that short sales will become more popular in the Denver area and across the nation this year.

Lenders prefer short sales to foreclosures because they are less costly to them. One national figure often quoted is that a bank typically loses 40 percent with a foreclosure, but only 19 percent in a short sale, she said A short sale typically damages a borrower’s credit less than a foreclosure, and does not cause the emotional devastation of a foreclosure, she added.

No cost to sellers

“And the word really needs to get out that there typically is not cost to home sellers when they do  short sales,” Fix said. “I think more homeowners would be willing to do them, if they knew that it wasn’t going to cost them anything. The bank pays for the commissions, the title work, everything,”

The distressed homeowner, however, does not receive any proceeds from the sale, but in some cases can receive $3,000 in moving expenses.

However, Fix said that distressed homeowners should be starting the process earlier. “A lot of times I get a call a week before the home is about to be sold at the public trustee auction, and that is often too late,” she said.

She suggests that owners having trouble making a mortgage payment contact the non-profit Brothers Redevelopment in Edgewater as soon as possible. Brothers runs the Colorado Foreclosure Hotline at 1-877-601-HOPE.

Meanwhile, on Feb. 1, changes take effect the in the U.S. Treasury’s  Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative Program, or HAFA, which could make it easier for homeowners to qualify for a short sale, she said

Some of the HAFA changes include:

• Buyers seeking a short sale will get an answer or an agreement form the bank within 30 days.
• Banks are no longer required to verify the finances of homeowners.
• Occupancy requirements have changed.

And short sales are not for the impatient.

Her research found that a short sale, on average, took 160 days to close last year, almost double the average days on a market for a market sale.

One concern in the past is that Realtors have not been reporting short sales correctly on Metrolist. Fix looked at the “broker remarks” part of the form and only found 10 or 15 cases when the Realtor had not disclosed it was a short sale, but had mentioned it in comments.

“Of course, I have no way of knowing how many agents did not report that information at all,” Fix said. “But I think as real estate agents become more familiar and comfortable with short sales, the reporting will become better.”

County	2010 Short Sales	Percent change from 2009	$250,000 and under	$1 million or more.
Adams	786	6%	730	0
Arapahoe	884	15%	743	2
Denver	682	23%	572	6
Douglas	463	19%	252	8
Jefferson	517	25%	413	4
Total	3,332	18.7%	2,710	20

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Jack O'Connor and Leeann Iacino have left RE/MAX Professionals to launch a new company.

Jack O’Connor and Leeann Iacino, most recently top executives at RE/MAX Professionals, have  launched a full-service residential brokerage firm serving the Denver area. O’Connor had been one  of the five main owners of RE/MAX Professionals and Iacino had been president.Their new company, Prestige Realty Services, takes its cue from the Prestige Real Estate Group, which they formed in 1999, before merging it with RE/MAX Professionals a decade later. Prestige Realty Services, the new company, will be headquartered in the Inverness Business Park at 385 Inverness Parkway.

The new company is structured to attract medium-to-large production broker agents, who will be drawn by an exceptionally high level of technical, communications, and marketing support, as well as lower overhead fees, Iacino said.

Technology driven

“This is not a ‘work-from-home’ based company, but rather one that will allow better agents to use technology to their advantage, whether they’re working from here, or their own office elsewhere,” Iacino said.

Iacino, who co-founded Prestige Real Estate Group and turned it into one of Colorado’s largest independent real estate agency, began working on the idea of a new venture three years ago. Through her participation with the national group Real Trend, she discovered several large brokerages in major metropolitan areas, modeled around high services with a minimal sticks-and-bricks infrastructure.

In 2006 Iacino was named an ‘Outstanding Woman in Business’ by the National Association of Women Business Owners in concert with the Denver Business Journal; and in 2009 was chosen as Residential Real Estate’s ‘Power Book Newsmaker’ by the Journal. That same year, Prestige merged with RE/MAX Professionals; Iacino resigned as president of RMP last month, to launch the new venture.

Good mix, predicted

O’Connor, top producer whose monthly ‘Jack’s Report’ of market trends has  predicted some of the Denver market’s ups-and-downs over the last seven years, is also partner in the venture. He also resigned from his partnership in RE/MAX Professionals last month.

“This company will prove to be a very good mix for a medium to upper producer,” O’Connor said. He has a frequently appeared  at national and international  forums as a speaker on sales and management, and plans to head PRS’s agent training capabilities, including new agent recruiting.

Iacino said that O’Connor will continue to release his report. PRS will be on the web at PRS-Brokerage.com beginning in January.

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Jim Erpelding is JCAR's 2010 Realtor of the Year

Jim Erpelding a broker with RE/MAX Professionals, has been honored as the 2010 Realtor of the Year by the Jefferson County Association of Realtors.

Erpelding was recognized for his commitment to providing distinguished service to home buyers and sellers, his unquestioned integrity and support of the association.

Kathie Capra-Bowles, 2009 Realtor of the Year, presented the award, last week at the association’s annual dinner.

“It is an honor to present this award to Jim,” Capra-Bowles said. “His open-door policy for colleagues seeking guidance and humility has earned Jim the respect of his peers.”

Erpelding has been a member of the Jefferson County Association for more than 20 years. He has serves as moderator for the weekly networking sessions. Under his leadership the meetings have become a forum for industry and market information.

Erpelding entered the real estate business in 1986 with Crown Better Homes and Gardens and was associated with Van Schaack and Co. before joining RE/MAX Professionals in 1988.

The Jefferson County Association of Realtors represents more than 2,000 real estate brokers in Jefferson County.

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• Active loan modifications down by half in Colorado

The number of homeowners in Colorado in active trial modifications – the first step in the federal government’s  $75 billion plan to keep people out of foreclosure – has dropped by almost half since the beginning of the year, shows an InsideRealEstateNews.com analysis.

In May, the latest numbers available, there were 6,423 homeowners in Colorado participating in active trials under the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, part of the Obama Administration’s  Making Home Affordable Program. That is a 45 percent drop from the  11,708 homeowners participating in HAMP in January and a 28 percent drop from the 8,932 in active trials in April. The number of people in the active trial program has dropped every month  this year in Colorado. New rules have hammered the number of people allowed into the programs, but ultimately should mean more homeowners will stay in it. Nationwide, the programs have been plagued by a huge percentage of people being bounced from the program because they could not afford even loan rates as low as 2 percent, because they did not have the income to qualify for even vastly reduced mortgages.

Permanent Mods Rise

The number of homeowners in the Permanent Modification part of HAMP,  rose 13.8 percent from May to 4,960 from 4,356. However, that was the lowest month-to-month percentage increase this year. The number of  homeowners receiving permanent loan modifications has risen 176 percent since January when 1,797 had received permanent modifications in Colorado.

“I don’t see it working,other than about 25 percent of the time,” said Jack O’Connor, the broker owner of RE/MAX Professionals.

He said many consumers, who have lost their jobs or are grossly under-employed and can’t take advantage of the the super-low mortgage payments offered through the government-backed program.

“Lenders are trying to do the program, as it is the mandate from the federal government, but it is just not a clean enough process to work for a lot of people,” he said.

This spring, the government basically instructed loan servicers – the ones that collect the monthly loan payments – to pre-screen homeowners before they enter the trial program to increase the odds that the homeowner will qualify for a permanent loan modification.

Much more common than loan modifications are short sales, in which the lender agrees to sell the home for less than the mortgage amount, O’Connor said.

Short sales increasing

“Short sales are now increasing and the consumer is more aware their are other options than just a loan modification,” O’Connor said. “And for homes below $250,000, there has been appreciation. So I’m seeing small deficiencies (the difference between the loan amount and the sales price) than in the past. I’m seeing deficiencies of $5,00 or $6,000 and $7,000 – the the $30,000 or $50,000 of a couple of years ago.”

Zachary Urban, spokesman for the Adams County Housing Authority, said that the “most critical aspect” of the drop in trial modifications is the rules change that requires lenders to be more selective in letting consumers into the program.

“”That has punctured the bubble, if you will, of home modifications,” Urban said. And that is a good thing, he said.

“We saw this rise in trial modifications and it was just not sustainable,” Urban said. “I think with the drop in trial modifications, we are also going to see a drop in recidivism rate – in other words, the drop out rate is going to drop. The quality will go up, as the quantity goes down.”

While it may seem like bad news to homeowners who would love to lock in rates as low as 2 percent, it often is not in the best interest of the homeowner, he said.

“The way we look at it is why give more money to the mortgage company when it is a losing proposition? The consumer needs to see that there are options.”

Urban agrees with O’Connor is that there will be a wave of short sales.

‘I think we are going to see a huge spike in short sales,” Urban said. “The rules for short sales are now more efficient, and investors are more willing to accept them. I am seeing a huge appetite for short sales by investors. And by investors, I am talking about mortgage-backed securities. In the past, the investors in these securities were unwilling to accept short sales, but now they are much more willing to pull the trigger on them. The way I look at it, the biggest hurdle in the entire short-sale process was with the investors of the mortgage-backed securities.

Employment key

Shannon Peer, director of counseling at the non-profit Brothers Redevelopment in Edgewater, said loan modifications work best for homeowners who are under-employed, and not unemployed.

For example, if someone had been making $75,000 and is now only making $55,000, the loan modification might be just what the doctor ordered. But if the person loses their job and has no income – or is just collecting unemployment – they most likely won’t qualify for HAMP, he said.

Also, some people will be seeing the so-called “alt-A” adjustable rate mortgages that they took re-set to higher rates in the next year or two, and if they can remain employed, even at lower wages, they could benefit from the government loan modifications.

“And what we are increasingly seeing is the private sector stepping in and offering their own proprietary loan programs outside of HAMP and the Making Home Affordable Program,” Peer said. Some people who are booted out of the government-backed programs, might be thrown a lifeline from the growing number of bank programs, he said. O’Connor said that big lenders such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo are starting to offer pilot programs in some states, which they could expand if they are successful.

And Urban said that even if the majority of people had been bounced from the permanent loan modification programs, that does not mean they are failures.

“I think you need to put it into perspective,” Urban said. “We are talking about billions and billions of dollars in home loans. If 50 percent, or even 70 percent, of the people in the program are dropped, the minority who do benefit represent a big, big dollar amount.”

Month	Active Trials	Permanent Modifications	Total
January	11,708	1,797	13,505
February	11,707	2,613	14,320
March	10,929	3,422	14,351
April	8,932	4,356	13,287
May	6,423	4,960	11,383

MSA	Active Trials	Permanent Modifications	Total HAMP
Boulder	224	149	373
Colorado Springs	637	552	1,189
Denver-Aurora	3,907	3,152	7,059
Fort Collins-Loveland	290	194	484
Greeley	413	319	732
Pueblo	180	121	301

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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The online workshop will help homeowners understand their nine best options when faced with an unaffordable mortgage. Homeowners will also get details on the new government Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program, or HAFA, which offers those eligible a $3,000 moving allowance after their home is sold.

Fix can help you fix foreclosure fears

“We often find that homeowners in a difficult financial situation will hesitate to reach out to a professional for help and end up losing their home and ruining their credit,” Fix said. “I believe we can help more homeowners avoid foreclosure, and that is very gratifying.”

The latest numbers on mortgage delinquency show that approximately one in every seven mortgages is in some stage of delinquency, nationwide. While they may not be facing immediate foreclosure, these homeowners are more at risk of foreclosure the longer they wait to do something about their missed payments. Even if a homeowner is two or three months away from losing their home,  there is hope.

Nine options

The nine options that will be covered during the workshop are:

1. Reinstatement of your loan. Homeowners have the right to reinstate the loan by bringing the payments current.

2. Forbearance of the loan. The lender may consider partial payments to catch up.

3. Sell the property. You may have equity.

4. Rent the property.

5. Refinance the property.

6. Mortgage modification

7. Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure

8. Bankruptcy

9. Short Sale. This could allow you to sell your home for less than what you owe, and the bank may forgive the rest of your debt. A Short Sale can save your credit.

“Many homeowners may have bought or refinanced at the peak of the real estate market and were able at that time to meet their commitments,” says O’Connor. “But, so many families have had their finances turned upside down by this economy that they’re now in trouble. This workshop will help them find a way out.”

The free workshop is from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. and will utilize gotomeeting.com. To RSVP, and get more information on the event, call Stephanie Fix at (303) 885-4693, or email her at: sfix@remax.net.

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

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Denver was not on the list of 20 MSAs that NAR released data on median prices and sales in March, but at the request of InsideRealEstateNews.com, the trade organization supplied it with otherwise “unpublished” data on the Denver market.

The data shows that only San Diego, with a 20.4 percent increase in price, and St. Louis, at 19.8 percent, bested Denver.

“There may be some other unpublished data that would be in conflict,” with Denver being ranked No. 3, said Walter Molony, a spokesman for the NAR. “But Denver is one of the top ones.”

Positive national spotlight

“I think this is really good news,” said Gary Bauer, an independent broker, who tracks local real estate data based on Metrolist figures. His latest report showed a 12.2 percent increase in the median price in march 2009 to 2010.

“Clearly, what we have previously reported to you from Metrolist is consistent with what NAR is saying, although the numbers are slightly different possibly because of different way of calculating them or slightly different geographic areas being included,” Bauer said. “But I think that this is very positive, especially in light of the recent Forbes.com article,” which listed Denver as the second worst housing market, based on what it thought it was a rising inventory numbers based on Zillow.com, which local Realtors discredited.

“What I also think is very positive is that when you look at the homes that are under contract, but have not closed,” Bauer said. “We are going to have a very good April and a very good May for closings. And even when the tax credits go away at the end of this month, my gut tells me we are still going to hang in there.”

Mix, not appreciation, driving stats

The main reason that the median prices are up is because more sales are occurring at higher price points than in the spring of 2009, said Jeff Thredgold, the economist for Vectra Bank in Colorado.

“I would have to say that the Denver and Colorado markets are much more stable than they had been,” Thredgold said. “If you look at how things were a year ago, or 18 months ago, people did not know what tomorrow held. Now, the Colorado economy is much more stable, the U.S. economy is more stable and stronger, the stock market is doing much better, and mortgage rates still remain at very attractive levels. ”

Still, it would be a mistake to think the NAR numbers are showing home appreciation.

“This is not to say that the average home has gone up 14 percent,” Thredgold said. “They have been pretty much sideways. What we are seeing is that people are buying more homes in the $300,000 to $450,000 range than we were seeing, which is driving up the overall prices.”

As far as percentage changes in sales, the Denver-area market was near the bottom of the MSAs tracked by NAR.. The Denver-area sales rate rose by 9.2 percent, a far cry from the 45.6 percent in Portland, the No. 1 market by the sales metric. Portland’s home prices, however, remained down from a year earlier.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Thredgold said. “Some of these other market were really crushed. People are now just starting to buy again, after that big run up in prices and the equally huge downturn. Denver never went through those big increases and big drops.”

Market heading for first real appreciation in 10 years

Jack O’Connor, an owner of RE.MAX Professionals, agrees.

“We have neither had the big appreciation, nor have we had the big declines,” O’Connor said. “What we are seeing is a solid market. Our inventory is not rising dramatically like it does in a typical spring, and ales are up. Those are all good things. while you don’t want to take a snapshot of one month and say this is the trend, I think if this continues for three months or so, you could have evidence that we are going to see the first real appreciation of homes prices in the Denver area for the first time in 10 years. I think we are going to see home appreciation from the very low-end all the way up to the $500,000 to $600,000 price range.”

End of tax credits could hurt

Economist Patty Silverstein, principal of Development Research Partners, said that not only are more expensive homes starting to sell in the Denver area, but demand is driving up prices at the lowest end, driving up the overall numbers.

“We still have more foreclosures entering the market than we would like, but our foreclosure problems started earlier than in most markets, so we are likely to come out of it faster than most markets,” Silverstein said.

However, she said that she is concerned that while the $8,000 tax credits for first-time home buyers, and the $6,500 tax credits for some existing home owners, could be boosting today’s market, at the expense of future sales

“you have to wonder how much of the sales activity here and all across the country are because of the tax credits,” Silverstein said. “I don’t know if this is a sustainable situation. I guess they are good as far as they go, but would prefer sales market based on fundamentals that could be sustained.”

MSA	Median Price 2009	Median Price 2010	YOY % Price Change	YOY % Sales Change
Atlanta	$116,300	$113,600	-2.3%	7.0%
Baltimore	$245,500	$236,800	-3.5%	18.9%
Boston	$289,500	$329,800	13.9%	25.9%
Cincinnati	$113,200	$124,100	9.6%	16.0%
Dallas	$138,100	$144,600	4.7%	12.6%
DENVER	$203,000	$238,200	14.4%	9.2%
Houston	$145,500	$154,300	6.0%	11.0%
Indianapolis	$107,500	$117,500	9.3%	11.0%
Kansas City	$131,600	$137,400	4.4%	11.5%
Miami/Ft. Lauderdale	$210,200	$218,200	3.8%	12.9%
Minneapolis	$154,125	$165,000	7.1%	6.5%
New Orleans	$156,300	$154,100	-1.4%	-2.3%
New York	$367,400	$379,900	3.4%	24.5%
Philadelphia	$209,700	$209,300	-0.2%	19.6%
Phoenix	$127,500	$144,500	13.3%	10.1%
Pittsburgh	$108,700	$122,900	13.1%	26.3%
Portland	$245,700	$238,700	-2.8%	45.6%
San Antonio	$145,400	$143,700	-1.2%	29.7%
San Diego	$326,800	$393,600	20.4%	4.0%
St. Louis	$107,900	$129,300	19.8%	25.6%
Washington, D.C.	$287,300	$298,900	4.0%	12.5%

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RE/MAX Horizons, serves Highland, West Highland, Lo-Hi, Berkeley, LoDo and surrounding neighborhoods,  from an office  at 3870 Tennyson St. It has 22 agents who produced $91 million in sales last week. The office will be renamed as RE/MAX Professionals City Properties on April 1, said Leeann Iacino, president of RE/MAX Professionals. The acquisition price was not released.

“This is a very promising venture for our company –  one that positions us serve some of the neighborhoods that are benefitting from the continued growing popularity of central Denver,” Iacino said, announcing the acquisition today.   RE/MAX Professionals currently has a Cherry Creek office serving downtown and neighborhoods east of the city center.

Owners staying

RE/MAX City Horizons owners Dan Jimenez and Jeff Laws will remain as partners in the venture with RE/MAX Professionals’ ownership group. RE/MAX City Horizons currently posts 36% of residential sales in the two Highlands zip-code areas; one of the largest shares of any real estate company serving those neighborhoods.

RE/MAX Professionals was consolidated in May 2009 from Prestige Real Estate Group and RE/MAX Professionals. The new acquisition brings to eight the number of RE/MAX Professionals offices serving metropolitan Denver, including offices in the DTC/I-25 corridor; Castle Pines/Castle Rock; Cherry Creek; Highland; three offices serving south Jefferson County in Lakewood, Southwest Plaza and Ken Caryl Ranch; and a flagship office in Highlands Ranch at 1745 Shea Center Drive. RE/MAX Professionals is on the web at PrestigiousDenverHomes.com.

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

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Year-to-date median prices of Denver-area homes sold each February from 1999 to 2010. Source: Gary Bauer

The Denver-area housing market showed signs of a continued recovery in February, according to reports released today.

“First time home buyers are back in the market, as well as investors,” said Gary Bauer, an independent broker who releases a monthly report based on Metrolist data, which reflects homes sold by Denver-area Realtors.

He added that the “inventory is up, pricing (is) up, mortgage rates (are) steady,” and, perhaps most important, “it’s Denver.”

Home prices are up well into the double digits from a year earlier – led by a 20% increase in the average price of a condo at $166,206, compared with $138,239 in February 2009. And the median price of a single-family home that closed last month, compared with February 2009, rose almost 15 percent to $220,750 from $192,000. The increase largely reflects  competition from investors and first-time home buyers bidding up low-priced homes, Bauer and others said.

Bidding Wars

David Simonson, a broker with RE/MAX Professionals, experienced that today.

He had a client looking at a home along the southeast suburban corridor priced at about $230,000.

“The home had been on the market for all of four days, and it already had four offers above the listing price,” Simonson said. “It’s completely a bidding war.”

And for homes priced at $150,000 or less, the bidding is even fiercer.

“For those homes, investors can’t pull out their checkbooks fast enough,” Simonson said. “If you look on the HUD Web site for foreclosures, as soon as people can make open bids on them, they disappear.”

Meanwhile, there were 4,414 homes placed under contract in February, up 5.5 percent from the 4,183 in February 2009, reversing the trend of most of 2009, in which under contracts lagged the same month a year earlier. Under contracts jumped 19.6 percent from the 3,690 home contacts in January, but a large month-to-month increase often is seen for seasonal reasons early in a year.

High-end housing picking up

Chris Mygatt, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Colorado, said that savvy, well-heeled buyers are snapping up seven-figure bargains.

“I thought it was just great news all the way around, but especially at the high-end,” Mygatt said. “We super out-performed where we were a year ago. I think we had 32 home sales in the $1 million-plus range compared to 14 in February 2009. I’m cautiously optimistic. February is now the sixth consecutive month we have seen average prices increase.”

As far as the ultra-expensive markets, he said that some lenders are loosening their purse strings.

“Sometimes people are buying the loans down to $417,000 so they can get conventional loans, but we also are seeing some jumbo loans in the high 5 (percent) and low 6 (percent), which are really great rates when you’re talking about an $800,000 or more loan,” Mygatt said.

Not that they are easy to get.

“The lenders are looking for super-high FICO scores, big down payments, and other assets,” Mygatt said. “But I do think that the people who have the ability and the courage to buy at these prices, are getting super-extraordinary deals. We see it every day. And I think those people are going to look back a few years ago and be very glad they purchased in today’s market.”

But those homes still make up a small percentage of the overall market. In the first two months of the year, 51 homes and condos priced at $1 million or more have sold, accounting for 1.5 percent of the overall market.

“While we’re still not seeing a lot of activity in the high-end this year, it is much more than the previous year,” Bauer said. “We are starting to see a few more foreclosures and short sales in the high-end market. And while there are not a lot of jumbo loans out there, there is more money available for high-end purchases than before. And there is some pent-up demand growing for luxury homes. I think that is another example where Denver is a couple of steps ahead of the rest of the nation.”

Brian Chappelle, a founding partner of the Washington, D.C.-based Potomac Partners consulting firm, who was the keynote speaker at Universal Lending’s annual meeting today, said that from a national perspective, “all the news coming out of Denver sounds very encouraging.” About 200 people heard Chappelle speak on a wide variety of housing and mortgage industry topics at the Cable Center on the University of Denver’s campus. (Universal Lending is a sponsor of InsideRealEstateNews.)

Tax Credits Expiring

Bauer said that Denver-area buyers increasingly are taking advantage of the $8,000 federal tax credit available for first-time home buyers. There also is a $6,500-tax credit for qualified homeowners, planning to move up or down.

Chappelle said buyers who want to take advantage of the credits better do so quickly, because Congress is very unlikely to extend them. The credits require that a house be placed under contract by April 30 and closed by June 30. The credits initially were going to expire last November.

“I think there is a feeling in Congress that they are not getting much bang for the buck with the tax credits,” Chappelle said in an interview with InsideRealEstateNews, before his presentation. “They were very helpful at six months ago, but there is a feeling now that most of the people who will use the tax credit, would have bought a house anyway.”

Simonson, of RE/MAX, agreed.

“I think the March numbers will reflect some of the tax-credit activity, like February did,” Simonson said. “And I think when they are over, we will see a little drop off. But it will be a blip. I think most people who really wanted to take advantage of it, did so last year. Now, people will take advantage of it if they can, but I don’t think it is the driving force it was last year.”

Chappelle said the odds of Congress extending the tax credits were at 10 or 20 percent, at the most, especially if the housing recovery shows signs of recovering without them.

“Now, if housing were to fall off a cliff when they go away, Congress might do something, although I don’t know if it would be to extend the federal tax credits,” Chappelle said.

Rates to remain low

And that means interest rates will remain at their near-record lows, he said.

“There had been some fears that the Fed would stop mortgage securities a the end of March, and interest rates would shoot up,” Chappelle said. “I don’t see that happening. Congress realizes the only way the economy is going to recover, is if the housing market recovers. And the only way the housing market can recover, is if interest rates remain low.” He said the Fed can keep rates low, because there are no signs that inflation is an imminent threat.

Larry McGee, a broker with the Berkshire Group, noted that February’s statistics reflect “positive news” in year-0ver-year and month-over-month increases in average and median prices.

Inventory remains low

He does show some concern, however, on the small number of homes on the market. Bauer puts the unsold inventory at 19,359, down 3.5 percent from a year earlier, while McGee puts it at 18,669. The slight difference is because Bauer added a new category for homes created by Metrolist, called “pending” sales, back into the unsold inventory.

Either way, “this  is an extraordinarily small amount of homes available for the Denver market, especially considering the low number of new built homes being constructed at this time,” McGee said. Bauer said he was surprised there are not more homes on the market.

McGee said reasons for the low inventory include  ”high unemployment making it difficult to sell, a lack of financing available for home loans in the $400,000 to $1 million  market, a lack of equity for many home owners that must remain in place until a rise in market prices creates enough usable equity to allow a sale of the present home and a purchase of a more desirable one.”

A snapshot of sales activity by price, county

Source: Gary Bauer

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

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“We continue to sell franchises in this economy, because RE/MAX offers the best value in the marketplace,” said Vinnie Tracey, President, RE/MAX International Inc. “By joining RE/MAX, our new franchisees and our former competitors know they’re getting the power of a world-class brand, and all the cutting edge technology and training that comes with it.”

A closer look at RE/MAX international franchise sales in 2009 shows explosive growth in several regions –  southwest Germany increased 200%, Portugal grew 100%, and Israel was up 45%. With the addition of eight new countries, including the Bahamas, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Morocco, Peru, and Uruguay, RE/MAX continues to have an international presence greater than any of its competitors.

RE/MAX experienced additional success in the U.S., selling 21 new franchises in California, a state with one of the most challenging real estate markets. There was also impressive growth in other regions. The number of new offices in New England and southeast Michigan increased by 100%, in Georgia by 80%, and in the Mountains States region, franchise sales were up 40%.

“Achieving this type of growth despite a recession is the true test of any company,” said Tracey. “And the fact that RE/MAX continues to exceed expectations and surpass the competition is the reason we’re still going strong, after 37 years.”

Conversions from competing real estate companies to RE/MAX are also increasing. A conversion in Denver allowed Prestige Real Estate Group, a major independent brokerage with 250 agents, to merge with RE/MAX Professionals, creating the third-largest real estate firm in Colorado.

With significant economic and real estate improvements in 2010, RE/MAX said it is looking forward to another successful year of franchise sales around the globe.

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

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