Best September for home contracts

YTD closings. Source: Gary Bauer, Metrolist.

You don’t have to tell Lydia Lin that last month was a record September for home sales activity in the Denver area.

Last month, she put about 10 homes under contract in as many days, despite being on vacation for five of those days.

“It’s crazy,” said Lin, owner of One Realty in Denver. “I’ve sold almost 50 homes this year, while in all of last year I sold 32.”

Reports by independent broker Gary Bauer and Metrolist showed 5,337 homes were placed under contract in September, the best September on record.

A total of 4,730 homes were closed, the third best September for closings. Closings reflect homes that were placed under contract in previous months.

Bauer said some Realtors he talked to, like Lin, had a fantastic September, while others saw a steeper than normal decline.

Indeed, while contracts were up 19.7 percent from a September 2012, they were down 16 percent from August, which also was a record, with 6,353 contracts being written.

Closings showed the same trend, falling by 16.1 percent from August, but rose 19.8 percent from August 2012.

Part of the drop was the normal seasonal decline, which likely will continue for the rest of the year, Bauer said.

Lydia Lin

“Right now, we’re still seeing a lot of activity in hyper-local neighborhoods like West Highland, LoHi, Berkeley, Sunnyside and other neighborhoods,” Bauer said. “What is happening in Berkeley is just amazing.”

Also, he and others said if the governmental shutdown continues, it also will hurt the market more than normal.

Lin said September started out slow, but picked up in the middle of the month when mortgage rates fell.

“It seems like the last couple of weeks, things are just going kind of gangbusters,” she said.

Falling rates have been key, said Peter Niederman, CEO of Kentwood Real Estate. Read full article here