BY DAVID YOUNG • davidyoung @coloradoan.com • January 28, 2009
National home values posted the sharpest drop in history this November according to one report. However, Fort Collins’ market is faring better then most, according to experts.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller 20-city housing index released Tuesday showed an 18.2 percent decline since November 2007. The drop in value is the largest since the index’s inception in 2000.
Home values in the 20-city index, which includes Denver, have decreased 25.1 percent since their peak in July 2006.
All 20 of the large metro cities noted year-over-year declines in November.
Fort Collins’ homes have not experienced the same decline due to their sustainable appreciation and the fact that home prices didn’t increase as much as they did in larger metro areas, according to Dave Pettigrew, real estate broker with Prudential Rocky Mountain Realtors.
“We never had any big run up in selling prices, so consequently, we are not experiencing the same adjustment,” said Pettigrew, who writes a real estate column for the Coloradoan. “It certainly is a worrisome number they put out there, but it needs to be taken with a proverbial grain of salt.”
In 2008, the average sales price of a home in Fort Collins declined for first time in 33 years by 1 percent. The number of houses sold dropped 14 percent, Pettigrew said.
Chuck McNeal, chairman and CEO of Group Inc. Real Estate, confirmed that his company witnessed the decrease.
McNeal noted the national report based on the larger cities’ housing markets do not reflect what is happening in Fort Collins.
“It measures large metro areas where the news has been the worst because those are the areas that overheated the most because of the boom,” McNeal said.
While McNeal predicts a soft housing market for the first six months of this year, he said by summer, the number of home sales in Fort Collins should turn around.
Real estate is driven by change in people’s lives, McNeal said. And while the foreclosure rate is holding steady, he said those homes are selling fast.
“Real estate is on sale in the United States, and it is being driven by incredibly low interest rates,” McNeal said. “Confidence continues to be the issue for the consumer.”