The Montrose Colorado Real Estate Market has experienced very little slowdown. November and December experienced the traditional holiday period lull, but February and March have provided accelerated activity here at the Montrose Keller Williams Office.
Rates are rumored to increase today; this will put a further dent in affordability for first-time home-buyers. Affordability is still quite good though for the rest of the US; home-ownership costs are 15% of total income, while home-ownership costs for first-time home-buyers are 25% (The historical national average is 21.6%).
Wage growth in the US is back on the menu. February’s job report showed a 2.8% gain in wages, reflecting the tightening labor pool. Keller Williams chief economist reported a 5% increase in personal income over the last year. Both of these numbers point to positive growth for US consumers, which should hopefully provide first-time home buyers a leg-up in the current housing challenge.
Speaking of challenges, housing inventory is becoming a testing point in the economic recovery of Montrose Colorado. Companies looking to re-locate to Montrose have expressed their concerns about housing inventory and rental availability. Home buyers across the board are trying to navigate the few purchase options available in the current housing market. On the positive side, this supply and demand scenario provides an opportunity for homeowners to sell high and for investors, builders, and banks to rise to the occasion.
As the stock market peaks in its 8th year bull run, real estate looks like the next investment opportunity. Historical new home construction growth averages 1.08% annually; 2016 produced a 0.78% gain in new housing construction. Current headwinds to achieving this growth reality are: financing, building material costs, and skilled labor availability.
Montrose County issued 56 single-family building permits in 2015. This past year experienced a 1% gain, or 57 total permits issued. The good news is that 9 permits have already been issued in the first 2-months of 2017; this is a stellar start to the New Year. Further signs of future inventory growth can be seen in the rapidly diminishing inventory of build-able lots for sale. In Montrose, the last 6-months saw a 32% increase in lot sales from the same time period last year. Hopefully this is an indicator of future new home builds to come. Currently, there are only 97 lots available for sale under $60,000 with less than 1-acre.
Thinking about Buying or Selling? Call or Text: 970-417-9375
Copyright 2017 Keller Williams Colorado West Realty, LLC. If you have a brokerage relationship with another agency, this is not intended as a solicitation. Equal opportunity housing provider. Each office is independently owned and operated. For sale by owner data not included in research findings. Sales data reflects sales from homes not limited to the Atha Team LLC. This information was gathered from Keller Williams, The National Association of Realtor, CoreLogic data analysis firm, Montrose Association of Realtors, and the Mortgage Brokers Association. This data is considered accurate, but is not guaranteed. Copyright Atha Team LLC 2017. All Rights Reserved.