In a new survey released this week, Zillow.com reports that homeowners in the Denver Metro area pocketed a total of $7.87 billion in home equity gains last year, by far the best performing U.S. market in 2009. Boston was the second best performing market, showing gains of $3.47 billion, while New York reported the ugliest losses, with homes dropping a staggering $93.4 billion in aggregate value last year.
The Denver Post published a Zillow.com map with its coverage showing which neighborhoods have performed best and which areas remain soft. North Aurora and the I-70 corridor of East Denver remain the hardest hit parts of town, while much of Adams County showed surprising strength after several years of value declines.
Of course, as I say in post after post, generalizations really don’t work in this market. There is such disparity between what is happening at the low end of the market (3 month supply of homes) compared to the high end (32 month supply of homes) that the Zillow report may or may not have much relevance to your particular situation.
Many sub-$200k single family neighborhoods have seen values jump 10% or more in the past year, while homes above $400,000 have lost value. Condos continue to perform below expectations at all levels, while investors have made huge profts by fixing and flipping starter homes for the past two years.
The strong numbers reported by Zillow are likely driven by the fact that, in sheer numbers, there are more entry level homes appreciating than high-end estates depreciating, so the net bottom line looks pretty good.
Overall, it’s good PR for Denver and indicative of a market that is further along on the path to recovery than many other metropolitan areas. If you have questions about how your particular neighborhood has performed, give me a call.
