The real-estate market remains steady for now as deals in the pipeline continue to close. Dan Korman with Alpenglow Properties says it’s too soon to tell how the pandemic will affect the future market.
Welcome to the Durango Real Estate Update, I’m Dan Korman with Alpenglow Properties and I hope this message is finding you, your friends, and your family healthy and at home. I’d like to give a huge shout-out to the first responders, medical workers, grocery store employees, and all of the other people currently working in order for our society to continue to have some sort of semblance of functionality.
It is safe to say that these past weeks have been among some of the most tumultuous and emotional that any of us can remember in our lifetimes. The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak has been felt by individuals, families, companies and communities, across the United States and around the world, and Durango is not excluded from this as La Plata County has confirmed cases in our region.
The recent Shelter in Place Order from Governor Polis has deemed the real estate industry “essential,” specifically referring to appraisals, title companies, and transactions in that document. Though this does give real estate professionals an exemption from the Stay at Home Order, it’s important to know that this does not mean that brokers should be doing “business as usual,” and Alpenglow Properties is taking a proactive approach to this situation. This pandemic will most likely shape our history moving forward, and we may be dealing with a level of “new normal.” That means that all real estate professionals should continue to be diligent in ensuring that our clients can achieve their real estate goals while maintaining the highest standards of health and safety for our community.
So, what’s happening in our real estate market!? For more on that let’s go to my statistics correspondent out in the field… I’m just kidding, I’m sitting here at home while my baby takes a nap and this is as low budget as it comes… So, due to the daily changes in our global situation, I have actually shifted away from looking at Q1 as a whole and have been tracking the Under Contract and Sold statistics for single-family homes in La Plata County on a weekly basis. The first data set is for the week beginning February 1st and as you can see here, we are starting to see a slight dip in the number of homes going under contract over the last couple of weeks. While I do foresee a lag effect creating a slower market in the coming month or two, the line in the graph will most likely continue to be relatively flat, but by no means has the market flatlined. It’s important to think about the average transaction time of four to six weeks when looking at these numbers as we have only been under a Stay At Home Order since late March. When looking at how many homes are selling per week compared to 2019 in the same weeks, you can see we were on pace to have a much bigger year until about the middle of March, when what probably would’ve been a continued upward trend dropped to last year’s levels. Not sure how this line will trend in the upcoming weeks but I’ll continue to stay close to the numbers and keep everyone apprised of any shifts via social media and blog posts.
Although March's numbers will certainly begin to reflect the challenges the pandemic is creating, the stats to date are a good sign that the underlying fundamentals of the market are strong. The recession we are experiencing is very much different from the recession of 2008 as this economic downturn was in no way created by the real estate market, homeowners have a lot more equity in their homes than they did in ’08 which should minimize the amount of short sales and foreclosures, and relief packages from the federal and state governments should provide the relief we need in order to weather the storm and get back on track. Again, no one can tell us exactly how this will effect our local and national real estate market but if you’d ever like to chat about questions regarding real estate, please feel free to reach out via email at Dan@AlpenglowProperties.com or on any of my social media platforms at the handle @DurangoBrokers.
Stay strong, stay at home for now, and be thankful that we get to be quarantined in such a beautiful place. Thanks for watching and be well.
Dan Korman, Broker/OwnerAlpenglow Properties, LLC
101 W. 11th St. #108
Durango, CO 81301
Office: 970-335-8601
Call/Text: 970-382-1162
