Sell-it-yourselfers: Denver is the fastest-growing market for independent home sellers, according to a recent survey by ForSaleByOwner.com.
The Mile High City ranks fifth, with 1.9 percent of its homeowners choosing to sell their homes without a real estate broker last year. That’s a 166 percent increase in the number of people over the previous year.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area is the second fastest- growing market, with a 119 percent increase.
Industrial strength: Forbes magazine holds Denver-based ProLogis up as a shining example of the virtues of investing in industrial real estate investment trusts.
In its Aug. 14 edition, the magazine notes that industrial REITs such as ProLogis are better at avoiding oversupply than REITs focused on office buildings or retail space.
Forbes reports that ProLogis has outperformed even its industrial peers, with an annual return of 33.8 percent, compared with 30 percent for AMB Property and 23.4 percent for First Industrial Realty Trust.
High hopes: The Hope Communities Inc. board approved an $8.7 million budget for fiscal 2006-07, the largest in the organization’s 26-year history.
In the next year, Hope plans to develop 84 affordable rental units and 28 affordable homes for sale, in addition to the 388 affordable rental units it maintains.
In addition to housing developments, the new budget will allow Hope to expand resident services, offer an on-site after-school program and support the leadership goals of local residents.
Critical mass: One of northern Colorado’s newest retail corridors is holding its own against the region’s established markets.
The amount of retail space at the intersection of Interstate 25 and U.S. 34 in Loveland has reached 1.7 million – about the same amount as Fort Collins’ Harmony Road and downtown corridors combined, according to a research report by The Group Inc.
The vacancy rate at the Loveland interchange, which includes Centerra Marketplace and the Promenade Shops at Centerra, is 9.9 percent.
About 8 percent of the 1.33 million square feet of retail space along the Harmony corridor is vacant, while 11 percent of the 408,874 square feet downtown is available.
Staff writer Margaret Jackson can be reached at 303-820-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com.
Mortgage rates dip again, to 6.63 percent
National mortgage rates around the country dipped for the second week in a row, a dose of encouraging news for people thinking about buying a home. Rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages dropped to a nationwide average of 6.63 percent for the week ending Aug. 2. That was down from 6.72 percent reported in the week ending July 31. Below are average mortgage rates in Denver, Adams and Arapahoe counties as of Thursday and the previous 52 weeks. The one-year Treasury bill average reported by the Federal Reserve Bank is 5.17 percent. The Cost of Funds Index for December from the Federal Home Loan Bank (11th District) was 4.090 percent.
