About Denver's Castle Rock

http://www.coloradodreamhouse.com/index.php/news/ This week’s photo Friday comes to us from James Mason. This is a view atop of a mesa in Castle Rock, CO. Yes Castle Rock is known for more than the outlet shops. It’s also a gorgeous place to live. Please submit to us the photos of your life and we may post them on our sites for all to share. We loved to know where you live and the good life you enjoy.

Builder confidence in the Colorado housing market slipped this month, according to the National Association of Homebuilders' monthly Housing Market Index.

The Housing Market Index is actually a weighted composite of 3 separate surveys. One measures current single-family sales; one measures projected single-family sales; and one measures traffic of prospective buyers.

All three surveys were down in July:

• Single-Family Sales : From 17 (June) to 15 (July)
• Single-Family Project : From 22 (June) to 21 (July)
• Buyer Foot Traffic : From 13 (June) to 10 (July)

The HMI's July reading of 14 puts confidence at its lowest point since April 2009.

For home buyers in Denver , a drop in builder confidence could create an opportunity for negotiation.

Remember, it wasn't too long ago that most builders were flush with home inventory, unable to find willing buyers. To help move product at that time, builders dropped prices and offered incentives including free upgrades. If confidence continues to sag going forward, home purchase deals of that nature may return -- especially as the foreclosure market gets larger.

See, in the past, builders' main competition for buyers were the existing home sellers. Today, builders compete with the existing home sellers and the banks with REO.

It's a terrific time to be a home buyer, in other words -- sellers are fighting for you. It's no wonder sellers have little leverage anymore. Couple that with all-time low mortgage rates and affordability for homes is at an all-time high.

If you're planning to buy a home later this year, you may want to consider moving up your time frame. The market looks ripe for good deals this summer.

http://www.coloradodreamhouse.com/index.php/news/ This week we are taking a look at home values for the city of Castle Rock, Colorado. We can see from the graph below from Zillow that the high water mark was in the middle of 2006 when the average home price was at an all-time of high of $256,900. Since then prices have steadily dropped and are currently still dropping. As of this index the average home price is $242,900. Prices are down almost 1% from this time last year. If you click the blue link below the graph you’ll see how Castle Rock is doing against its neighbors like Parker, Castle Pines and The Pinery. To read more about this trend or the market in Castle Rock click the blue link below the graph. As always if you have specific questions and would like to contact me directly feel free at dpolimino@fullerproperties.com and 303-522-1161.