After four years of tortuous swings and rising prices, Boulder’s housing market may finally be hitting something of a plateau.
The median listing price of a home in the Boulder area was $472,000 in November, according to the website Realtor.com. That was up 53% from $309,000 in June, 2021 — but down substantially from earlier in 2023, when the median listing price soared above $500,000.
Correspondingly, 31 homes were sold in Boulder last year, according to the real estate website Zillow — lower than the 41 homes that sold in 2021, but an uptick from the 24 that sold in 2022.
And perhaps most telling, homes are taking longer to sell. The median time on the market before selling was 78 days last November, up from 43 days two years earlier, according to Realtor.com — which could be a sign that demand is softening.
All this data should be viewed with some caution: Boulder is a tiny market, after all, and the small number of sales in any given month can cause big, and sometimes deceptive, swings in the data.
Even so, area brokers say there’s reason to think that the housing economy may be moderating. Across Jefferson County, home prices dropped by 1.6% in the third quarter of 2023 from a year earlier, according to Windermere Economics. And in Boulder, “I see that home prices are leveling out,” said Jeannie Lake, a broker at Augustine Properties.
“I am also seeing home prices being reduced based on the length of time a property is available on the market,” Lake added, indicating the importance of pricing a home based on market values and recent comps in the area. For example, a home at 204 South Cook Street has been on the market for 156 days. The seller reduced the price by $30,000, to $205,000, last October; it is now under contract.
At current listing prices, Boulder remains a more affordable alternative to Helena, where the median listing price in November was $550,000. On a per-square-foot basis, Boulder’s $207 is 23% lower than Helena’s $270. “We are seeing an influx of people who can’t afford Helena,” says Amber Giulio of Integrity & Impact Realty.
New housing construction could keep Boulder prices lower.Throwing Dice LLC is set to build 25 residential duplexes at the west end of Hauser Street, and two triplex units are going up on Second Avenue. Throwing Dice has indicated that its units will be moderately priced, but it hasn’t yet disclosed rental rates.
Interest rates may also be coming down. The current national average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is 6.39%, according to Zillow. The National Association of Realtors says that the rate decline from its cyclical peak will save borrowers about $300 per month, helping to feed stronger home sales. Sellers could also benefit from a continued decline in rates; Giulio said that homeowners are selling into a fluctuating market because they “still [want] to take advantage of the equity in their homes.”
No one has a crystal ball when it comes to making market predictions. One thing that may ring true for potential buyers, beyond all the data, is that Boulder’s market differs from others in even more ways than what can be calculated in the fiscal sense.
“I really think that the Boulder market…it really comes down to what people want. It’s not always economical. I think people come to those smaller towns because they want to get back to the atmosphere, the camaraderie and the connectivity of neighborhoods” said Phil Shields, owner of The Synergy Group Real Estate in Helena. “People are starving for connection these days.”
