by Fort Collins

As you’ve probably heard, prices have gone up quite a bit along the Front Range.

Low interest rates, strong demand, lower supply, and a healthy local economy are all contributing to increased prices.

It may interest you to see exactly how much prices have increased since one year ago in the markets where we have the most activity.

Over the last year, Weld County has increased roughly $100,000, Metro Denver $90,000 and Larimer County $60,000.

Specifically, here are the average prices one year ago vs. today:

• Weld County = $426,000 vs. $523,000
• Metro Denver = $523,000 vs. $612,000
• Larimer County = $532,000 vs. $592,000

While a lot of attention has been paid to increasing sales prices along the Front Range, it is also interesting to look at the average price of properties currently listed for sale.

Did you know, for instance, that the average list price of all the properties currently for sale in Metro Denver is $887,000. Meanwhile, the average closed sales price is $613,000.

In Larimer County it is $793,000 versus an average closed sales price of $601,000.

In Weld County it is $669,000 versus $488,000.

What is causing this? The high number of high-end properties currently for sale pulling up the average.

You might be surprised to hear the number of $1,000,000-plus listings active listings in our market looks like this:

• Metro Denver = 527
• Larimer County = 75
• Weld County = 44

Mortgage rates have been below 4% for 96 weeks in a row.

Today, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate sits at 3.17%.

This is 0.5% lower than January and exactly 1.0% lower than March 2020.

Rates recently ended a 31-week streak of being under 3%.

Over the last 5 years, rates have averaged 3.8%.

Most experts believe that rates will continue to creep higher as the year goes on.

The price of lumber has doubled in three months.

Lumber is just one of several examples of skyrocketing materials costs which are impacting both home builders and home buyers.

The cost of lumber is now at a record-level $1000 per 1000 board feet.

These rising costs not only add to the sales price of a home but also add to the inventory shortage issue.  Some large, publicly-traded home building companies are slowing production in hopes of building costs dropping over the next few months.

Many people expected lumber prices to drop, or at least level off, when the tariff on Canadian lumber changed in December.

However, because demand has been so high from both building and remodeling, lumber costs continue to climb.