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Boulder County Real Estate
Slow recovery ahead for real estate
Slow recovery ahead for real estate
Source:
--> By Business Report Staff


November 25, 2009 -- BOULDER - It's a clichÇ phrase in the real estate world, but experts at the Boulder Valley Real Estate Conference & Forecast told audience members that "now is the time to buy."

Giving their views for 2010, local and national real estate experts said they expect the economy to slowly recover, and along with it interest rates likely will rise.

About 500 people attended the conference presented by the Boulder County Business Report on Nov. 19 at the Millennium Harvest House Boulder. Lead sponsors were Re/Max of Boulder and The Colorado Group.

Brad Blackwell, retail national sales manager of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, said the U.S. Federal Reserve plans to slowly withdraw its emergency support from the mortgage markets, which likely will raise rates starting in January.

While housing prices may still fall in 2010, today's low interest rates are a better deal in the long run.

"It's important for people to move off the fence now," Blackwell said "It's a great time to buy."

On the commercial side of real estate, Scot Smith with The Colorado Group Inc. said local vacancy rates were holding up stronger than expected as many landlords lowered rates and offered deals to keep tenants.

"Tenants can expect some lease concessions, but they should also be prepared to give some form of personal financial assurance that they will pay the lease," Smith said. "For landlords, it's important that they sell the value of their product - 'you can get a good deal from me, but it's not slash and burn time.'"

In the buying and selling real estate market, Smith said things likely will remain stagnant. While there will be good deals to buy, loans will be difficult to obtain, he said.

On the residential side of real estate, D.B. Wilson with Re/Max of Boulder said homes of less than $500,000 continue to see improvements in sales, but the high-end home market is still facing challenges. Much of that is tied to higher jumbo mortgage rates, although those have come down from 8 percent last year to about 5.75 percent today.

Wilson also noted that foreclosures were back on the rise, and that would be something to watch out for.

From a macro-economic viewpoint, Patti Silverstein, chief economist for the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., and Paul Bishop, managing director of Real Estate Research at the National Association of Realtors, said the economy likely had hit bottom in the third quarter of 2009 and would start to make a slow recovery.

Bishop said raising consumer confidence would be a key factor in getting the economy back on track. Silverstein said while residential real estate will continue to recover in 2010, commercial real estate will likely face troubles as short-term loans from the boom come due in midst of a tough credit market.

- David Clucas
Posted: Monday, November 30, 2009 11:06 AM by Jennifer Egbert

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