Regional
(2009-11-10)
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DENVER, CO
(KUNC) -
The Denver area was one of only thirty metropolitan markets in the US to see median home prices rise in the 3rd quarter, if only slightly.
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Some analysts say that spike, as well as the rise in home sales in the state, points to signs that the market is starting to recover.
"Colorado's showing a much better performance than the US as a whole, in terms of home price performance," says Walter Moloney, a spokesman with the National Association of Realtors.
Moloney says people are starting to buy all those distressed and foreclosed properties, mostly thanks to a popular tax credit for first time home buyers.
He hopes that will free up some inventory at the low end of the market, and encourage the upper end homeowners to start selling and buying again.
But others caution against reading too much into these numbers.
Median home prices tell a skewed story, says Sriram Villupuram, an economist at Colorado State University's Everett Real Estate Center.
"If you put your head in the oven, and toes in the freezer, if you check the different spots in your body, the average and median temperatures are going to say that you're at the mid point, you're fine, but in reality you're basically going to hell," Villupuram says.
He says it's impossible to use the median home price as an indicator of whether or not the state or national housing market is on the road to recovery. It just shows that a lot of activity is going on at the lower end of the market.
The Everett Center is working on its own measure called the repeat sales index. That's due out at the end of the year and should give a more accurate picture of what's happening to home values in the region.
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