Is the Sky Falling in Boulder?
by Osman Parvez After traveling it always seems to take a few extra days to catch up on the work that piled up while I was away (hence the scarcity of blog posts). In the meanwhile, I've noticed more than a few doom and gloom news items about the real estate market. These pieces include a roundup of realtor or gadflyesque blogs on the bubble and another about buyers fleeing to Mexico. From the over-hyped sound of it, real estate is falling off a cliff and investors in particular are desperate to get out. Given that real estate isn't one [...]
New Boulder Dream Homes
by Osman Parvez In the past week several interesting high-end properties have been listed on the market, including two newly constructed properties. Perhaps one of these is your dream home. For a private showing, please contact us at 303.746.6896. Here's a taste... 743 Utica Ave $1,349,500 4 BD, 4BA This ~3,600 SQFT newly built custom home is directly in front of Wonderland Lake, with unobstructed views of the lake and mountains. It features large rooms, an open floor plan, decks, and coffered ceilings... 625 Hawthorn AVE, Boulder, 80304 $1,550,000 4BD, 4BA This very large new construction ~4800SQFT home in Newlands [...]
Why Boulder?
by Osman Parvez Why does a company like Crispin Porter + Bogusky pick a small town like Boulder, Colorado to setup shop? In business, innovation is a critical competitive advantage. Some have said it's the only sustainable advantage. In the recent past, it was fairly routine to evaluate a company's assets based on financial statements. The estimated value of plants, industrial machinery, and equipment can still be found on the balance sheet. But the most critical assets aren't on the balance sheet, they aren't bolted down on the assembly line, they walk in and out of the building each day. [...]
Boulder Million Dollar Discount Homes
by Osman Parvez Two January sales of note on Boulder's high end. 1333 King Street sold on January 4th for $1.2MM. Originally listed for $1.6MM in July of 2004, this home had 5 price reductions and was on the market for a whopping 553 days. The sale price represents a 25% discount from original asking (and 11% from the final asking price). The nearly 5,000 sqft, 5 Bed, 4.5 Bath home featured a designer kitchen and was completely renovated in 2001. As is the case with higher value properties, the Chautauqua location of this home was truly stellar. This sale [...]
Seniors Are Driving Condo/Townhome Sales
by Osman Parvez Yesterday I wrote about the steadily increasing volume of Condo sales, pointing to demographic factors as core drivers. I did a bit more digging today, spending some time on our excellent state demographer's website. (p.s. If you're looking to analyze and understand colorado demographics or get a forecast of the future, this is a great place to start.) Using 2005 as the base year, I compared projected growth of those 60yr and older to that of the total population for Boulder County. As expected, the 60 yr+ group of the population is expected to grow at a [...]
You Want Boulder Listings? YOU GOT IT!
by Osman Parvez Taking advantage of changes in IDX listing availability, today we've added full MLS Boulder listing search capability at Realty Unique. This morning the system went live. We hope it makes it much easier to find the exact home you're are looking for. On the site, you can search for property, sign up for listing alerts, and more. Plus, there's the usual best buys, featured listings, and resources. By creating a way for our clients to search for property via our website, we can now handle the full experience from soup to nuts (as they say) and that [...]
Boulder Condo & Townhome Days on Market
by Osman Parvez What about Days on Market (DOM) for Condos and Townhomes? In this segment, we see an interesting potential trend shift. Median DOM decreased while overall sales and the average DOM increased. There are several possible explanations. One is that slow moving properties create an outlyer effect. They aren't sold a few days after the typical property, they are sold at after a substantially longer period of time. Even in a slowly warming market outlying properties will continue to skew the average. Meanwhile, the drivers for attached dwelling sales are likely going to continue to increase. The first [...]
Boulder Homes Days on Market in 4Q
by Osman Parvez This morning, we're digging further into the numbers on Boulder's market. The chart below depicts the number of homes sold (still preliminary for 4Q05) relative to the days on market (DOM) for the same period. This analysis is for single family home sales, no condos or townhomes relative to average and median DOM. Why both average and median? To illustrate the consistent skew caused by outlying sales. In plain English, there are a certain number of homes that sit on the market for very long periods of time. If you only look at average numbers, these slow [...]
Boulder, according to Wikipedia
by Osman Parvez It was only a matter of time. Boulder now has its very own Wikipedia entry. For the record, Marley and I are fans (and frequent participants) of the Thursday Night Cruiser Rides referred to as "Happy Thursday" in the entry. The bit about the student "riots" is a touch overemphasized. We're not talking about random violence, gunfire, and the city being set on fire (ala L.A. riots). Boulder's riots are essentially large student parties that get out of hand and are typically confined to parts of the University Hill area. Like this analysis? Subscribe to our [...]
Boulder Real Estate: A Tale of Two Markets
by Osman Parvez Based on preliminary estimates, Boulder real estate in the 4th quarter of 2005 was a tale of two markets. As the chart below indicates, there was a split between the high and low end of the market. 4Q sales to current inventory was fairly high below $700K, with the highest ratio between $600 and 700K. Meanwhile between $700K and 1.2MM, the ratio was noticeably lower. What is sales to current inventory? Take the number of homes sold and divide by the current number of homes in inventory. This gives you a rough approximation of the relative performance [...]
Boulder 4Q Sales (preliminary)
by Osman Parvez It's still early to tell, but it looks like Boulder's market may have painted a mixed picture for the 4th quarter of 2005. Current results indicate the number of homes sold dropped a little more than 6% compared to the same period a year earlier while Condo/Townhome sales increased nearly 12% (see chart below). The number of homes sold in the 4th quarter was still 16.2% more than in 2002. Keep in mind these numbers are preliminary and are based on a small sample size (208 homes sold, 150 condo/townhomes). Statistics are dependent on brokers correctly entering [...]
FSBO Madison
by Osman Parvez Yesterday, the New York Times ran an article on an up and coming FSBO (For Sale By Owner) website that captured 20% of the listings in Madison, Wisconsin. The article quickly became the #1 emailed article from the paper, an indicator of its popularity and impact. A couple of points... Like the many businesses in the past decade, real estate is undergoing rapid change fueled by the widespread availability of information. The Internet puts tremendous power in the hands of the consumer (where it belongs). However, contrary to popular perception, educated buyers or sellers are great clients. [...]
Losing A Client: Three Lessons
by Osman Parvez A Tale From The Trenches The other day I lost a prospective client. He ended up buying a property using another agent and, at the time, I was pretty angry about it. The way I looked at it, I had put in a good deal of time towards helping him with his relocation. The situation went sour when I happened to miss his call one afternoon and he randomly called another agent. Sure enough, these things happen in real estate. You haven't been in real estate long if you haven't had an experience like this. There are [...]
Selling the Ugliest House in Boulder
by Osman Parvez You know you've got problems when the listing agent describes your property as an "ugly house" and counsels potential buyers to "be brave." I suppose there are many approaches to marketing, but this agent's tactics are a bit surprising! Only one block north of Mapleton, Bluff street is actually quite nice (I would live there). This particular lot is fairly small at ~4,200 SQFT which could limit future build-out. I'd also advise clients to check how close this property is to Folsom, which carries significant traffic during the day. The existing structure is only 1,300 SQFT and [...]
Another Hot Company Moving to Boulder
by Osman Parvez Looks like another young, successful company is making tracks to Boulder. Recognizing that in the world of business today, attracting and retaining talent is a competitive advantage, marketing firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky has announced intentions to open up shop locally. Of course, the logic behind having a Boulder office isn't a secret. With it's combination of fantastic weather, outdoor recreation, low cost of living, proximity to a major airport hub, low taxes, educational opportunities, and business friendly environment the Boulder area is increasingly being chosen by companies seeking the highest quality of life for their people. [...]
