The metro area’s housing market crawled to a close in December. Existing-home sales for the month fell 12.9 percent from November and were off 5.4 percent for 2006, according to housing statistics released Thursday.
December’s two blizzards dented real-estate activity in a month already short on working days, said Gary Bauer, an independent real-estate analyst.
“With title companies and banks being closed, it did have an impact,” Bauer said. “We will see that residual spill over in January.”
In December, 3,104 home sales closed, down from 3,565 closings in November. For all of 2006, 50,244 existing homes sold, down from 53,106 in 2005.
With more than 19,400 foreclosures recorded last year, many home sales were under duress.
“There is virtually no community not impacted in some manner by foreclosure,” said Rob Horton, owner of Metro Brokers’ Absolute Real Estate Service at Lowry.
Even in neighborhoods where foreclosures were few, home-appreciation rates were under pressure.
The median single-family home price for 2006 was $249,900, slightly higher than 2005’s median price of $247,000.
Median condo and townhome values fell to $157,000 in 2006, down from $160,000 in 2005.
Those numbers may be artificially inflated by pricing concessions reached by buyers and sellers, Horton said.
Some buyers are accepting a slightly higher price, supported by an appraisal, if the seller will cover closing and other costs. That’s one of the few ways sellers can compete with homebuilders who are offering large incentive packages.
The number of homes listed for sale in December fell 10.9 percent to 24,534, mostly because sellers were pulling their listings.
“People don’t want to show a home during the holiday,” Horton said.
The time it takes to sell a condo is averaging 122 days, about on par with 2005, Horton said. Selling a single-family home takes about 111 days, nearly 20 percent longer than in 2005.
Horton focuses on the southeast metro area. He said his business was off nearly 38 percent in 2006, and he isn’t alone.
“It was a challenging year for nearly every Realtor,” Horton said.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
