Looking up how much your neighbor's house cost may be satisfying for a brief moment, but it isn't going to make you more knowledgeable about local real estate.
Ready for something a bit more macro and a lot less shallow? Here’s a small curated set of figures to explain Denver real estate right now.
51 percent
If you haven't heard, Globeville and Elyria-Swansea are two Denver neighborhoods poised for an influx of development and that's got people worried about displacement.
There's reason for concern too: 51 percent of renters there have no lease at all, according to a survey from GES Coalition Organizing for Health and Housing Justice. That makes it easier to evict with short notice. But the group has a plan.
111 neighborhoods
In 15 years, the number of high poverty neighborhoods risen to 111 neighborhood, which means the number has double in metro Denver, according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. While the number of homes in foreclosure has fallen, unaffordability has risen; 48 percent of renters were cost-burdened, the report found.
100.4 percent
You know how Denverite looks at underbids and overbids? The Colorado Association of Realtors does too, and they've got another way to summarize it: percent of list price received. Meaning, if you look at all the single family sold homes in Denver County, collectively they were either a certain percent above list price or under list price.
Turns out, collectively, Denver county single family homes were .4 percent above list price so far this year. One heck of an overbid if you ask me.
$37
For the second time this year, rents rose by about $37 in a quarter, according to the Apartment Association of Metro Denver’s latest Apartment Vacancy and Rent Report. So far, average rents have risen $73 in 2017.
4.8 percent
Almost 5 percent of Denver homes have a spare bedroom, according to an analysis from Trulia. Generally, those are homes owned by baby boomers, which means there's an opportunity for people who are looking to age in place to earn some money. Conversely, renters who are willing to rent from someone perhaps a bit older stand to save nearly 50 percent on rent, according to Trulia's estimates.
18 percent increase
With 18 percent more apartments expected to be added this year compared to last year, Denver is one of the best performing housing markets, according to RentCafe. Overall, Denver placed sixth among the top 20 metros for apartments expected to be added in their analysis.
$500,000 entry-level homes
Ok, so this one isn't super macro, but it's interesting. Denver real estate broker Jeff Plous explained how he ended with $500,000 "entry-level" homes: "For example, Xcel, as we were getting ready to break ground suddenly told us that we needed to go underground with our power lines which was a $140,000 hit that no one expected.”
