RyanMcMaken.com

Housing permits in the Denver metro area increased 18 percent from 2015 to 2016, rising from 1,462 to 1,732 permits. As we can see in the first graph, this brings total permit activity back to levels similar to those found in 2004 and 2005, and well above what we saw during the recessionary period of 2008 and 2009: As demand for both apartments and for-sale housing grew after 2009, we saw gradual increases in permit activity, and the permit total is now at a 14-year high. Permit totals have not been this high since 2002 when they reached 1,770.  The composition of the permit total is very different today from what it was prior to 2007, however. As we see in the next graph, prior to 2007, the total number of single-family permits greatly outnumbered the number of multifamily permits. Since 2011, single-family and multifamily permits have been rather similar, with multifamily permits even exceeding single-family permits in 2012 and 2013.  We can contrast this to...

Foreclosure activity continued to fall in 2016 in Colorado's 12 metropolitan counties. In Colorado's 11 most populous counties plus Broomfield County,  new foreclosure filings were down 6.9 percent while foreclosure sales at auction — the point at which the foreclosing property is auctioned off to the bank or other buyer — were down 26.5 percent. The first chart shows all counties measured, and the year over year change from 2015 to 2016: Except for Mesa and Denver counties, foreclosure filings fell in all counties. And, when it came to foreclosure sales at auction — the final and most serious phase of foreclosure — only Mesa county reported an increase from 2015 to 2016. Annual foreclosure totals in these counties have fallen off significantly in recent years: If we look at monthly totals, we see a similar trend — with foreclosure activity falling to some of the lowest levels we've seen since I began tracking monthly numbers in 2008. The first graph shows just h...

According to the latest data from the Apartment Association of Metro Denver, the average rent in Metro Denver during the fourth quarter of 2016 was $1,347, which was down from the third quarter average rent of $1,368. The fourth quarter's average rent was up from the fourth quarter of 2015 with the average rent rising 4.2 percent from $1,292. With a year-over-year increase of 4.2 percent, however, average rent came in at the smallest year-over-year increase since the first quarter of 2013, when the average rent grew 4.1 percent: Rent growth has been falling for the past six quarters after reaching a record high of 13.2 percent during the second quarter of 2015. The average rent has also fallen, quarter over quarter, for the past two quarters. After hitting $1,371 in the second quarter of this year, the average rent fell to $1,368 during the third quarter and then to $1,347 during the fourth quarter: If we adjust for inflation, we see a similar trend, although we can...

In Colorado, a release of a deed of trust occurs when a real estate loan is paid off whether through refinance, sale of property, or because the owner has made the final payment on the loan. Increases in release activity occur as refinance and home-sale activity increases, and rising release totals generally indicate increases in the demand for home loans and real estate. Eve ry quarter, I monitor release activity in 21 counties  based on population size and to ensure that as many regions of the state as possible are represented. More than 90 percent of all occupied households in Colorado are within the twenty-one counties chosen: The number of home loans paid off in Colorado was up 14.4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2015 to the fourth quarter of 2016. Comparing the full year of 2016 to 2015, the total was up 2.8 percent.  Looking at all counties' measures, we find that during the fourth quarter of 2016, most areas reported increases in releases of deeds of tr...

You'd have to be no paying attention at all to not have noticed that California has experienced an amazing turnaround in its drought conditions. According to the national drought monitor , as recently as November 2015, the California drought map looked like this: Now, after months of well-above-average precipitation, the California drought map looks like this: Colorado's turnaround was not so abrupt, and went from severe drought in 2013, then to virtually no drought at all in 2016. Here's 2013: And here's May 2016: Over the past several months, however, the Front Range has begun to see dry conditions again. Here's the current week: This will lead to concerns over wildfire conditions, although fortunately, precipitation in the mountains has been high enough that water supply-concerns do not appear to be substantial at this time. If we look at recent data on snowpack , we find that while Colorado started out very slowly this season, it is ...