Hi All-

I wanted to let you all in on the details of a scam that has been going on with Craigslist. It has been happening for about a year, but has really stepped up lately.

Here's what happens:

1. The Scammer finds a good property listing for sale on the MLS
2. They list the home as a rental on Craigslist using the Agent's name but with a different email address
3. They list the monthly rental amount at about half of what the normal rent would be in the property's area  
4. This low rent catches the attention of potential renters and in an attempt to beat out other renters at this great deal, many people rush to send these "Landlords" their security deposit and first month's rent as fast as possible
   
5. These "Landlords" only accept the payment by Western Union and commonly use the cover story of being missionaries overseas

Here's how to protect yourself:

1. If a deal sounds too good to be true - it is. (We had a $240,000 home that was advertised by these Scammers for $900/month in rent) 
2. When you see a listing, first Search the web for the property address. If it is listed for sale on another website, call the agent at a phone number listed somewhere besides Craigslist (the agent's website for example) to verify the property is truly for rent.
3. Unless you meet the owner or landlord personally at the home, be very cautious.

From The Denver Business Journal:

Colorado foreclosure sales down 4% in 2009

There were 20,437 home foreclosures completed in Colorado in 2009, down 4.1 percent from 2008's total and down 18.4 percent from the peak year of 2007, the state's Division of Housing reported Thursday.

Also:

The percentage of new filings leading to a conclusion short of a foreclosure sale -- including a refinance, loan modification or short sale -- was 37 percent in 2007, but by 2009 it had risen to 56 percent, the report said.

Read it all here

From The Denver Business Journal:

HUD grants $29M to Denver in stimulus foreclosure help

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded $29.3 million in stimulus dollars to the Denver area to help with home foreclosure recovery, HUD said Thursday.

Most of the funds — $18.99 million — will go to the City and County of Denver’s Office of Economic Development, and the remaining $10.26 million will be used by Chicanos Por La Causa Inc.

“The city’s foreclosure recovery efforts will see a significant boost thanks to this increase in funding,” Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said in a statement.

Read it all Here

 
Metro Area Condo Searches:
Aurora Condos and Townhomes, Arvada Condos and Townhomes, Castle Rock Condos and Townhomes, Centennial Condos and Townhomes, Denver Condos and Townhomes, Englewood Condos and Townhomes, Golden Condos and Townhomes, Highlands Ranch Condos and Townhomes, Lakewood Condos and Townhomes, Parker Condos and Townhomes, Thornton Condos and Townhomes, Westminster Condos and Townhomes,

From The Denver Business Journal:

Colorado is a magnet for movers, says Allied Van Lines

Colorado ranked fourth among the states in 2009 as a "magnet" for people moving from one state to another, according to an annual report Monday from Allied Van Lines Inc.

Allied said Colorado ranked behind Texas, Arizona and North Carolina in its 2009 "net relocation gain," defined as inbound moves minus outbound moves by volume that were performed by the Chicago-based moving company.

Colorado accounted for 3.4 percent of Allied's total inbound volume of moving shipments in 2009, versus 2.5 percent of the total outbound volume, the company said in its 42nd annual "Magnet States Report."

From The Denver Post:

Denver homebuilders seeing signs of a turnaround

 Builders in the Denver market were selling on average one home per community per month during the third quarter, said Jay Peterson, regional manager for Hanley Wood Market Intelligence. That's up from 0.7 homes a month during the same period last year.

Peterson also noted that cancellations are down 40 percent year-over-year.

"It shows more of a serious and intent buyer," he said.

Richmond American Homes reported 197 orders for new homes in Colorado in the third quarter, compared with 105 during the same time last year, said Zane DeHerrera, spokesman for MDC Holdings-Richmond American Homes.

"Back in the third quarter of '08, the capital markets froze," DeHerrera said. "That really impacted consumer confidence and slowed down lending tremendously."

Factors contributing to the increased activity include the first-time-homebuyer tax credit — which was recently expanded to include buyers who have owned their homes for at least five years — low interest rates and fewer existing homes on the market.

"We're definitely in the first stages of a real-estate recovery as it relates to residential," said Pat Hamill, president of Oakwood Homes. "We're starting to see values stabilize, inventories drop and people starting to feel good that this is the right time to buy because pricing has dropped significantly."

From the Denver Business Journal:

Denver among top U.S. cities for 2009 home-value gain

 Metro Denver had the third-largest gain in home values among cities nationwide in 2009 through November, with a $10.7 billion increase, according to Zillow Real Estate Market Reports.

Only Boston ($23.3 billion) and Providence, R.I. ($12.4 billion) had greater gains in home value.

U.S. home values as a whole dropped $489 billion in this year’s first 11 months, which was significantly less than the $3.6 trillion drop in home value sustained in 2008, the Zillow report said.

Forty-eight of the 154 markets Zillow tracks showed gains in home values through last month.

Latest Market Stats and Info on the new Homebuyer Tax Credits:

Click Here.

From WSJ.com:

Buying a Home in Time to Get Credit

 House hunting usually slows down this time of year, as people put their searches on hold during the holidays.

This winter could be different, however, thanks to the extension -- and expansion -- of the first-time home-buyer tax credit.

"We're going to see far more interest in the fourth quarter than we generally do because of the tax credit," says Heather Fernandez, vice president of Trulia.com, a real-estate search engine. Traffic surged on the site on Nov. 5, the day Congress approved the credit extension, she says.

The new law extends the tax credit for first-time home buyers and opens it up to some existing homeowners as well: The credit is now up to $8,000 for first-time buyers and up to $6,500 for repeat buyers.

 Read it all.

From the Denver Business Journal:

RealtyTrac: Sharp foreclosure decline in Colorado

Colorado saw a sharp decline in home foreclosures in October, both from the previous month and from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac Inc.'s latest monthly "U.S. Foreclosure Market Report."

A total of 5,047 Colorado properties were in some stage of the foreclosure process in October, down 18.75 percent from September and down 6.08 percent from October 2008, according to data released late Wednesday MST by RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based marketer of foreclosed properties.

 And this. Be Glad you don't live here:

RealtyTrac said four states accounted for 52 percent of the nation’s total housing foreclosure activity in October: California, Florida, Illinois and Michigan.

 Read it all

From Yahoo!:

10 Cities Experiencing Home Price Rebounds

...

9. Denver, CO.
Denver home prices rose 1% over the month. Prices there fell only about 2% since last year and have avoided the real estate bubble that hit east and west coast states.

...

From the Wall Street Journal:

Home Resales Jumped in September

Demand for previously owned homes surged in September as buyers grabbed lower prices and a tax credit about to vanish.

Home resales increased by 9.4% to a 5.57 million annual rate from 5.09 million in August, the National Association of Realtors said Friday.

August sales fell 2.9%; the NAR originally reported August sales fell 2.7%, to 5.10 million.

Read it all...

Average Home Prices Rise for 4th Consecutive Month in Denver

HUGE PRICE REDUCTION! 1660 Cherry Street - Denver 80220

Listing Number: 783499
Beds: 2
Baths: 2
Square Feet: 1239
Price: $269,900 est payment$
Description:
charming, brick, ranch, featuring hard wood floors, granite counters thurout main level ,finished basement w/ non conforming 3rd bedroom,& accessable attic space w/beautiful cedar panaling & swamp coolr. located in park hill ,close to shops & entertainment.

7468 S. Alkire St. Unit 108  - Littleton, CO 80127

 Listing Number: 803089
Beds: 2
Baths: 2
Square Feet: 962
Price: $119,900 est payment$
Description:
rare, ground floor 2 bedroom home close to c470 and the mountains! all appliances are included in the home w/ new carpet to make it ready for you now! enjoy your patio and the easy ground floor access. lots of closet space and covered parking

The numbers for housing under $250,000 continue to be very strong. We're consistently writing 2 to 3 offers for our buyers and seeing multiple bid situations. If you're on the fence about buying, GET OFF! 

From The Denver Post (emphasis mine):

Home Prices Rise Nationally

Metro Denver home prices increased 1.3 percent in May compared with the previous month, but the area was still down 4.6 percent compared with the same month last year.

Recent economic-forecasting surveys indicate the economy is transitioning from decline to growth, Thredgold said.

"That doesn't mean the problems with real estate and loss of jobs is behind us, but if we can talk about an economy that's growing, rather than one that's declining, that's going to help the psychology across the Front Range and across the country," he said.

With less than a three-month supply of homes priced lower than $200,000, it's not surprising Denver is showing the second-smallest decrease in year-over-year pricing, said Lon Welsh, managing broker of Your Castle Real Estate. The numbers are being dragged down by slow, high-end home sales, he said.

"We're clearly past the bottom at the low end, but the high end still has some suffering to do," Welsh said

 

Today's Denver Business Journal has some very encouraging numbers.

Not only has Denver's unemployment numbers fallen for 2 consecutive months, but the area's housing values increasing by 1.5% last month.

Read both articles here:

Denver Business Journal

From the Denver Business Journal:

Forbes: Denver is America’s best city to buy a home

(Read the Forbes Report Here)

Denver is America’s best city to buy a home, Forbes magazine says in a new ranking of U.S. metro areas.

“While the majority of the nation’s housing markets are still working toward a bottom, some cities are boasting fundamentals that make them good places to buy a home now,” Forbes reported this week.

Phoenix was ranked No. 2 on the Forbes list, followed by Boston, San Diego and Los Angeles.

The Forbes rankings seem geared more toward each market’s current and future potential as a place to buy a home, since some of the cities at or near the top of the list are among those hardest hit by the recession.

The report ranked the 25 largest U.S. metro areas on the basis of change in price per square foot, frequency of real-estate transactions, and how evenly distributed home-sales activity is in a metro area.

“Denver tops the list,” Forbes said. “It had 25 percent of its property sales occur within approximately 25 percent of the city’s ZIP codes. This means sales in various parts of the city were fairly evenly distributed, showing proportionate activity. The further a city deviates from the 25 percent mark, the less evenly distributed the market is in that city, and thus the lower that city ranks.”

Forbes also determined that average price per square foot of housing space increased 5.7 percent in Denver between February and March of this year, and that transactions decreased 8.4 percent between March 2008 and March 2009, less of a drop than many cities.

“Denver scores very well in terms of being able to bring people into a stable housing market,” the magazine quoted Moody’s economist Christopher Cornell as saying. “It has better growth potential than most cities today.”

Forbes listed Las Vegas, Cleveland, Seattle and Detroit at the bottom of the 25 cities. “There, distressed sales have kept home values down and buyers away,” Forbes said.

It’s the second time in as many months that Denver has held the top spot in a ranking of real-estate potential.

On May 19, Denver was named America’s No. 1 city on the verge of recovery in a segment on NBC’s “Today” show. Real estate expert Barbara Corcoran, a regular guest on the show, said Denver more than any other U.S. city is “clearly on a rebound.”

Forbes drew its data from March 2009 RPX Monthly Housing Market Report, distributed by Radar Logic Incorporated, a New York-based derivatives firm.