Becky Behrens

The US housing index report came out today. I for one was very interested in what it was going to say. Sales have slowed down a bit and I was curious to know if the prices of our homes had went down as well. Our homes actually appreciated more in the 3rd quarter than the 2nd quarter. In the 3rd quarter our homes appreciated 1.21% up from .82%, in the last year they have appreciated 4.67% down from 5.25% and over the last 5 years they have appreciated 66.11% down from 65.05%. I don"t know about you , but I sure am glad we have + (plus) sign in front of our numbers. I can't help but think "Not a bad return on you money".

The full report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency

Last Quarters Figures

A Quick Look At The Figures Nationwide

The Summary for September 2008 looks like this -

• 244 homes sold, and the average days on the market(DOM) was 109. You can see the DOM broken down by price range on the graphs.


• In September, inventory was slightly down in homes priced lower than $450,000 and there was a slight increase for homes priced above $450,000. There was a slight increase in sales for September.


• The average price of homes sold this month went up $6,190 to $250,789.

Disclaimer, I get the monthly statistics from my broker and his numbers take into account the expired listings and therefore slightly differ from my weekly statistics

Market Statistics for September 14, 2008 - September 20, 2008

According to our local MLS, there are currently 1,708 active residential listings in Grand Junction, 311 homes are under contract, and 68 homes sold last week. There were a strong number of closings this week, especially for it not being the last week of the month. By special request, I have started including statistics on New Construction. They are broken into areas below-

• City Area - 167 active/8 sold
• North Area - 273 active/ 8 sold
• Northeast Area - 175 active/ 12 sold
• Southeast Area - 162 active/ 9 sold
• Clifton Area - 80 active / 11 sold
• Orchard Mesa Area - 164 active / 8 sold
• Redlands Area - 224 active / 8 sold
• Fruita Area - 248 active / 5 sold
• Palisade/East Orchard Mesa Area - 70 active / 1 sold
• Northwest Area - 21 active / 0 sold
• West Area - 39 active / 1 sold
• Whitewater - 44 active / 1 sold
• Collbran/Molina/ Mesa/Vega Area - 52 active / 1 sold
• New Construction (Homes built in 2008)- 214 active / 12 sold (09/01/08 - 09/20/08)

The Different Neighborhoods in Mesa County - This is a general guide to the different areas

The following is an article from the local paper and it states that here in Western Colorado we are living in a buffer zone, compared to other areas of Colorado and the United States. Thanks to the Oil and Gas Industry for helping us through this. Unfortunatetly, the article only has statistics and figures from the first four months of this year. I would say that not much has changed, but it would be nice to see the statistics and figures through August. Also, we are supposed to hear very soon the results of the Oil and Gas Commission and the new rules to be proposed. They are still trying to decide on some key issues for the Western Slope.

Daily Sentinel Article - Western Slope economic vital signs stable, report says

Oil and Gas Commissions Website - COGCC