Photo: Construction cranes dot the downtown Denver skyline
As we roll into the dog days of summer, the hottest thing in Denver is no longer the local college hockey team. It’s real estate. According to The Denver Business Journal, the only market hotter than Denver is Seattle. That’s according to California-based Veros Real Estate Solutions, which estimates that Denver-area homes will appreciate 10.3 percent over the next 12 months, behind only Seattle’s expected 11.1 percent appreciation. This follows years of double digit price growth for homes in the Denver area.
People moving to Denver is the cause of tight housing inventory. Want a nice Denver bungalow on the south side of Denver? The median cost of a home in the city has moved up to a red-hot $439,161.
In the city of Denver, 7,672 new rental units are being built this year and the average rent for a 2-bedroom unit is $1,330. However, apartments located in the core of the city are $2,000-3,000 per month. And, apartment leases are often signed before construction is complete. According to The Denver Post, 13,028 people moved to Denver the past 12 months – a 2.7% growth rate for the city. The 1,000+ newcomers each month will drive the city of Denver over 700,000 residents before the end of the year. Home prices are now 49.1 percent above the old high they reached in the first quarter of 2006 – faster than any other city in the nation.
Have a dream of moving back to Denver and living near campus?
Try this contemporary 4 bedroom, 3 bath home at 1843 South St. Paul for a mere $974,900.
Want something more modest? Try this neat little starter home for $500,000 at 2328 South Williams Street with 3 bedrooms and 3 baths.
Something a bit more substantial near Observatory Park? You can pick up this 4 bedroom, 4 bath beauty at 2260 South Cook Street for a cool $1,990,000!
“Seattle and Denver again show no signs of letting up as the top markets,” according to Eric Fox, vice president of statistical and economic modeling at Veros.
While rents are beginning to plateau thanks to the glut of new housing options across the city, Denver remains an expensive though extremely appealing place to live. Not a bad recruiting tool!
Good stuff. Happy that i bought into some property in the area a while back, but also sad that it has become so hard to afford for most people except Californians, to whom Denver still is cheap. I think the neighborhood to the west of DU (Rosedale) will see tremendous changes over the next 10-15 years, and will be hardly recognizable from what it is now. Lots of homes probably built in the 1940’s to 1960’s (but not brick, so more “disposable”) that will be ripe for re-development. On one level, that’s progress…on another level, it kind of sucks. But market drives everything, what can you do?
Good stuff. Happy that i bought into some property in the area a while back, but also sad that it has become so hard to afford for most people except Californians, to whom Denver still is cheap. I think the neighborhood to the west of DU (Rosedale) will see tremendous changes over the next 10-15 years, and will be hardly recognizable from what it is now. Lots of homes probably built in the 1940’s to 1960’s (but not brick, so more “disposable”) that will be ripe for re-development. On one level, that’s progress…on another level, it kind of sucks. But market drives everything, what can you do?
They are called knock downs. A phenomenon that cycles through many metropolitan areas in boom times. The free enterprise system at work like it should.
Becoming like Boulder and CU, no one hired to work at DU can live anywhere near DU . But as stated, free market, so it must be good.
As long as free enterprise system doesn’t result in a subprime crisis that nearly cripples the world’s economy! I like to think that some people in power learned some lessons to prevent that from happening again, but then again see our “man in charge” and all confidence disappears. I don’t feel like there is a bubble in Denver at this point. But I do wonder what are the new high paying jobs that allow people to pay such prices (for either rent or purchases.) It’s not like Boeing or Apple or Google just moved to Denver. Californians who just cashed in their equity? Things have got to level out at some point, but no signs right now of that happening.
They are called knock downs. A phenomenon that cycles through many metropolitan areas in boom times. The free enterprise system at work like it should.
Becoming like Boulder and CU, no one hired to work at DU can live anywhere near DU . But as stated, free market, so it must be good.
As long as free enterprise system doesn’t result in a subprime crisis that nearly cripples the world’s economy! I like to think that some people in power learned some lessons to prevent that from happening again, but then again see our “man in charge” and all confidence disappears. I don’t feel like there is a bubble in Denver at this point. But I do wonder what are the new high paying jobs that allow people to pay such prices (for either rent or purchases.) It’s not like Boeing or Apple or Google just moved to Denver. Californians who just cashed in their equity? Things have got to level out at some point, but no signs right now of that happening.
I dont quite understand where the money is coming from either. I worked hard to make a nice living as a physician but throw in a couple kids, retirement savings etc and braking the bank to buy an old 1500sqft bungalow in an average part of town seems absurd when you can get way more for your dollar outside of city limits. Still I see many people tearing down these old bungalows to put up 7-figure mansions. I think many of these folks have good jobs but also get a lot of help from their parents and are spending quite a bit of their take home pay on mortgages. $750k for a small old house in a “safer” part of town is insane.
I dont quite understand where the money is coming from either. I worked hard to make a nice living as a physician but throw in a couple kids, retirement savings etc and braking the bank to buy an old 1500sqft bungalow in an average part of town seems absurd when you can get way more for your dollar outside of city limits. Still I see many people tearing down these old bungalows to put up 7-figure mansions. I think many of these folks have good jobs but also get a lot of help from their parents and are spending quite a bit of their take home pay on mortgages. $750k for a small old house in a “safer” part of town is insane.
Housing here is still a relative bargain compared to some other US cities. If you want to live in Manhattan, the average 1 bedroom apartment is $2 million to buy.
http://fortune.com/2016/12/14/manhattan-apartment-real-estate-price/
The fact is that great places, anywhere in the world, typically cost more than places that aren’t great. Denver is a pretty great place to live, and there is a premium that must be paid for the privilege of living here.
Housing here is still a relative bargain compared to some other US cities. If you want to live in Manhattan, the average 1 bedroom apartment is $2 million to buy.
http://fortune.com/2016/12/14/manhattan-apartment-real-estate-price/
The fact is that great places, anywhere in the world, typically cost more than places that aren’t great. Denver is a pretty great place to live, and there is a premium that must be paid for the privilege of living here.