Home prices slip in March

Number of homes under contract up because of season

John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, April 6, 2007

The average price of a previously owned home sold in the Denver area in March fell by more than $10,000, or 3.6 percent, according to a report released Thursday.

And while the number of homes placed under contract in March from February jumped by 24 percent, that is a typical increase for seasonal reasons, according to a report released Thursday based on Metrolist Inc. figures.

In March 2006, the number of homes under contract also jumped by 24 percent from March 2005. Homes sold and closed jumped 38.3 percent from February to March, also for seasonal reasons. Home closings are down 3 percent from March 2005.

Meanwhile, Realtors, buyers and sellers, and real estate companies still are recovering from one of the worst winter storms in recent history in the Denver area.

"One of the factors that you can't ignore is that we were pounded for something like seven weekends in a row in late December, January and February," said Chris Djorup, whose Metro Brokers office is at South Colorado Boulevard and Interstate 25.

"It was just bizarre weather," he added. "In 27 years of selling real estate, I had never seen the business come to such a standstill simply because people couldn't get around."

That is one of the driving forces for a promotion unveiled Thursday by Denver-based Home Investment Portfolio Partners Cos.

The company's offer: Anyone who pays full price for any of 11 homes by April 30 receives a two-night, three-day vacation package.

Travel packages are available to Mexico, Las Vegas, New York City, San Francisco, San Diego and Phoenix.

The packages are worth about $2,500 or more, depending on the cost of the homes. The homes are priced from $168,000 to $1.125 million and have a total value of $5.493 million.

"I think like us, a lot of people were trying to sell real estate from December through February, and frankly, because of the weather, they just weren't moving," said Chris Hageseth, president of the HIPP Cos. "We decided to offer this promotion as a little incentive," he said.

Gary Bauer, an independent broker who analyzes the Metrolist data, said he thinks the reason the average price of a home dropped in March to $302,084 from $313,339 a year earlier is because sellers are realizing they often need to drop the asking price to sell.

The second factor is the record number of foreclosed homes on the market, he said.

The median, or middle, price of a single-family detached home fell 3 percent to $240,000 from $247,500, a year earlier. Condo prices were flat from a year earlier.

Hudson & Marshall, a real estate auction firm, will auction about 50 foreclosed homes at 1 p.m. April 21 at the Renaissance Denver.

rebchookj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5207