Denver Real Estate News – June 2021
It’s Unlikely That Home Prices Will Decline in Metro Denver
At the end of May, the tide of the pandemic finally began to shift. Mask mandates have been lifted for fully vaccinated people, according to the CDC. Although this decision is controversial, for many it signals a return to pre-pandemic ways of life. As more people are vaccinated and sellers feel safer, it should help ease some of the low housing inventory. However, uncertainty remains in this market. We get asked daily, “Will home prices go down?” Let’s look at the historical data to see why we don’t think this is likely.
The graph below shows the historical price change for homes and condos over the past 50 years. You can see that the average Metro Denver home price has gone from about $50k to about $500k, an increase of 10x! However, after removing the effect of inflation,you can see that the average price 50 years ago was equivalent to $200k today. So, over the past 50 years, prices haven’t really gone up by a factor of 10. Rather, they have increased by a factor of about 2.5. A large part of that price increase is because larger and more deluxe homes were built over the past 20 years than in previous decades. So, what will happen over the next five years? The red dashed line is an educated prediction. Over the past 50 years, we have seen an average of 6% home appreciation. We think we will see a bit less over the next five years, so we added a forecast that prices will go up 5% per year. The average home price will probably be about $600k five years from now. If you’re a first-time buyer and can afford to buy a home, now is always a good time as prices drift steadily upwards, which could price you out of the market.
The next graph shows that the income per capita in Denver has gone up drastically over the past 50 years. If you look at the 1970’s, the average salary was around $8K. Currently it’s around $100k. Just like with home prices, you can see that’s an increase by a factor of about 10. However, removing the effect of inflation, the average wage in Denver win 1973 is equivalent to about $40K today. Without inflation the wages have a little bit more than doubled, and there’s good reason for that. This is a much more sophisticated city, with a much wider variety of jobs today than it was 50 years ago. Denver also has a highly educated workforce, among the best in the nation. So, what will happen to incomes over the next five years? We forecast 3.5% growth. Why? Because that’s what our wage inflation has been over the last 5-6 years, and it’s likely to continue at about that pace.
The third graph shows mortgage rates. Mortgage rates are exceptionally low right now. They are still close to 50-year lows, even though they’ve gone up a bit recently. This is another driving factor to keep the demand for homes high. What will happen to rates over the next five years? If you look at the average mortgage rate over the past decade, it was about 4.5%. Consequently, we predict that we will go from our current rate, about 3%, to about 4.5% over the next five years.
The fourth graph looks at the average mortgage payment, without inflation. This was built by looking at the average price of homes each year with an assumed 10% down payment. This shows what the principal & interest payment would be with the prevailing mortgage rate each year. You can see that the long-term average is about $1,550 per month. This is barely more expensive than the current average. So, homes are actually about as affordable as they have been historically, on average. What will happen to mortgage payments over the next five years? We think that is the question fueling of a lot of people’s concerns because they’ll probably be going up a lot! You can see on the chart the payments are going to increase from maybe $1,600-$1,700 per month today, to maybe $2,500/per month. This seems like a serious problem until we look at things from an affordability standpoint.
Finally, we will look at affordability. This is ultimately the metric that matters the very most! This chart was built by taking the principal and interest payment for an entire year and dividing it into the per capita income. This graph essentially shows how much of the average person’s income would have to be used to pay their mortgage payment. You can see that it is currently in the 30% range. The historical average is about 35%. Therefore, we are slightly more affordable now than the historical trend, on average. This affordability is a gift of historically low mortgage rates and higher incomes in Metro Denver. Right now, the market is stable. It makes sense that we are seeing higher prices from a supply and demand standpoint. Over the next five years you can see this metric will rise substantially. However, because incomes are also going up dramatically, it is not going to be as impactful as some people fear. Instead of these payments being below the historical average like they are currently, they will rise closer to the long-term average.
There is no reason in a market where we have low inventory, and favorable mortgage rates, for prices to go down. Based on the historical data, we think the market will see modest price increases for the next five years in the Metro Denver market. Please reach out if you’d like to discuss making a move in this market – our conversation will be focused around your specific goals!
Bonus – Here are some more market stats comparing April 2020 and 2021:
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