8z Real Estate works as a team to sell your Colorado home.

It may take a village to raise a child, but increasingly it takes a team to sell a Colorado home.

John Rebchook from InsideRealEstateNews.com spoke with President/CEO, Lane Hornung who was a co-founder of 8z Real Estate and COhomefinder.com. Together the companies have a team concept for selling Colorado homes.

Hornung recently sat down with John Rebchook to discuss what he sees as a growing – and necessary – trend in real estate sales. A Q&A with Hornung is a monthly feature of InsideRealEstateNews.

Lane explained to John that the best way to sell a home is as a team.

In the past, you had a team built around a power listing agent. The team 8z Real Estate has, is a complete staff for all the agents in a company. In a typical brokerage, the agents are basically on their own. They all are doing their own thing, each in his or her own way. A super team has a staff of professionals that are not agents. They support the agents by specializing in one of the activities that is needed in today’s market for a real estate transaction to be successful. This lets the REALTOR focus on the client and their needs, to be the market expert, not a jack of all trades.

This is beneficial to the Colorado real estate agent because it frees up the Realtor to know the market, and translate this knowledge to the benefit of their clients. It’s hard to be a market expert, plus be an expert in SEO and online exposure and blogging.

This team concept makes better service for the consumer!

Read the interview with John Rebchook and learn more about how a local expert stand apart in their expertise.

John Rebchook from Inside Real Estate News spoke with Lane Hornung, president of COhomefinder.com and 8z Real Estate for a recent article. His article was announcing that Denver ranked fifth on the Case-Shiller index comparing twenty different real estate markets, the highest it has ranked in a couple years. Despite its comparative gain, Denver was still down year over year.

So now all the talk is, will housing values double dip?

Lane Hornung, said to Rebchook that he was “happy to see that the Denver metro area once again avoided the dreaded double dip,” according to the Case-Shiller report. “But we are perilously close. We are 0.87 percent above our post-peak low, reached in February 2009. Another way to put it: We have been bouncing along the bottom since February 2009.”

Case-Shiller has been tracking an “ongoing, gradual erosion,” in Denver-area home prices throughout the winter, he notes.

Low inventory bodes well for prices rising

“I believe the trend will be reversed sometime this spring,” Hornung said. “I”m not sure it will happen in time to avoid the double dip, but I think the shrinking inventory bodes well for prices and for that trend of price erosion to reverse itself.”

Hornung noted that the inventory has not matched the typical seasonal rise in home demand in the spring. While the Denver-area market, as expected, was down in March from March 2010 because of the loss of the tax-credit buying, it was up 44 percent from February, he notes.

“Sales volume is up 44 percent and the number of listings is up only 2 percent,” Hornung said. “Demand still may be weak, but the supply is even weaker.”

Still, the Denver-area housing market is so close to a double dip, it may happen, but it will be a mere blip.

“Whether it happens or not, by the time we know it has happened, we already will be reversing the trend,” Hornung said. “It would be a psychological data point, for sure. But when we smooth the data out over time, a one- or two-month blip will not matter.”

Colorado’s foreclosure crisis has hit bottom, and most states are in worse shape than in Colorado as far as homeowners losing their homes. That's the news reported by John Rebchook from InsideRealEstateNews.com from an interview with Ryan McMaken of the Colorado Division of Housing based on the analysis of the latest Mortgage Bankers Association data.

McMaken’s analysis of the data shows that Colorado with the 14th lowest foreclosure inventory in the nation. The MBA tracks loans that are 30, 60 and 90-days delinquent. After a homeowner hasn’t made a payment in 90 days, banks can begin the foreclosure process.

The percentage of Colorado mortgage loans in foreclosure fell to 2.53 percent in the fourth quarter, compared to the national average of 3.63 percent. Even on a national basis, the foreclosure rate is down from its all-time high of 5.02 percent in the first quarter of 2010.

“Clearly, we have hit bottom,” McMaken said on Friday. “But the number of filings are still going up and there is still so much fragility in the market that we don’t want to be over-confident. Anything can happen. But the trends we are seeing so far have been good.”

And Colorado “continues to improve faster than the nation with its delinquency rate,” said McMaken. He also analyzed third-quarter delinquent mortgage data from the MBA and “the same trend held up . Colorado held up better than the nation.”

However, the total inventory of foreclosure homes in Colorado is rising, which McMaken attributes to the delayed foreclosure process during the “robo-signings” of big banks. Still, the total inventory of foreclosed homes is down almost 10 percent from its peak reached at the end of 2009.

Yet, it is clear the the number of new distressed loans in Colorado “are accelerating downward faster than across the nation. Nationally, loans that are either in foreclosure or 90 days delinquent are down 11.4 percent from their peak, while in Colorado they are down 15.7 percent from their peak, McMaken’s analysis shows.

What is your opinion about the foreclosure news? Does it reflect your personal experience, or do you feel that we have yet experienced the worst of it? Comment and share your opinions and be sure to read the rest on Inside Real Estate News and about foreclosure updates.

Colorado has mixed results for foreclosure rankings according to a recent article from John Rebchook and InsideRealEstateNews.com. Some areas are well below the national average while others are not fairing so well and are listed on the 200 cities with the highest foreclosure rates. From a RealtyTrac report John wrote about the following cities and their foreclosure rates.

The United States had 2.87 million properties with foreclosure filings in 2010. A total of 2.23& of housing units. That is 1 of every 45 housing units.

In comparison Boulder was well below the national average with only 1 of every 76 homes with foreclosure filings. That is 1.31% of Boulder housing properties.

The Fort Collins and Loveland area was also below the national average with 1 of every 57 housing units with foreclosure filings for 1.75%. Foreclosure filings in 2010 also dropped a dramatic 11.7% from 2009.

Colorado Springs was near the national average with one in 38 homes with foreclosure filings, so respectively 2.6% of the Colorado Springs housing units.

The Denver-Aurora area had the highest total amount of homes with foreclosure filings with shy of thirty thousand homes - which equates to 2.83% of the housing units. This was above the national average by nearly a third of a percent.

Greeley had the highest foreclosure rates in Colorado and 21st of 206 metropolitan areas in the report. One in every 21 homes had foreclosure filings, or 4.68% of their housing units.

As a perspective on our site COhomefinder.com you can see Greeley real estate and the median home price of Greeley listings at $134,900 compared to all Colorado listings on COhomefinder at $209,900. That's substantial.

As you browse through Greeley properties you will see the foreclosure activity in the listing descriptions of 'foreclosure' and 'short sale.'

Based on the market snapshot for Greeley single family homes it will take 7.1 months to absorb the current inventory with 580 single family homes listed.

Across Colorado homes the market snapshot with COhomefinder listing statistics has 8.3 months to absorb the current inventory.

COhomefinder has great statistics for real estate buyers and sellers to keep in perspective. If you are looking for real estate, whether you're buying a home in Greeley or selling a home in Aurora, a local broker can show you why 8z Real Estate excels with your local real estate needs.

Colorado is again ranked on a top 10 list that is bleak for real estate. Colorado was ranked tenth for its foreclosure rate in November by RealtyTrac. The Irvine, Calif.-based company said that one out every 433 homes in Colorado was in some part of the foreclosure process last month. Nationally, one out of every 492 housing units is in some state of foreclosure, from the initial notice to the REO. An REO is the final stage of the foreclosure as defined by wikipedia.org: "Real estate owned or REO is a class of property owned by a lender, typically a bank, after an unsuccessful sale at a foreclosure auction.[1] A bank will typically set the opening bid at a foreclosure auction for at least the outstanding loan amount. If there are no bidders that are interested, then the bank will legally repossess the property. This is usually the case as the amount owed on the home is probably higher than the value of this foreclosure property. As soon as the bank repossess the property it is listed on their books as REO and categorized as an asset (non-performing)."

In total, RealtyTrac found 4,970 foreclosure filings in Colorado – 1,549 of them were REOs and 3,409 of them were what it calls Notice of Trustee Sales. RealtyTrac also had 13 what it calls Notice of Defaults. The number of foreclosure filings in Colorado were down 4.5 percent from November 2009, far below the 14.4 percent drop nationally. Foreclosures also were down 13.6 percent in Colorado from October, while nationally, foreclosures were down 21 percent in November from October.

Nationally, foreclosure activity showed a steep decline in November. Read the rest of the story including about the national foreclosure rate from Inside Real Estate News

If you are looking for Colorado homes in foreclosure you can see many of them on COhomefinder. Use the field 'Search for Anything' to type exactly what you're looking for.

For example if you are looking for foreclosure homes in Denver you could search "foreclosure Denver" and view all the listings that have foreclosure in their description and are located in Denver.

November was a bit of a turkey for the Denver-area housing market, with the worst closing activity of previously owned homes for the month in almost two decades, the fewest number of under contracts for a November since 2004, and almost a 13 percent increase in inventory from November 2009.

-The 2,666 closings last month – the worst November since the 2,153 in 1991
-Denver metro-area’s population has grown by about 42 percent since 1991.
-The average price of a single-family home at $281,466 is 6.5 percent higher than the $256,498 in November 2009
-Median price is up 7.3 percent to $233,990 from $218,000.

The price increases are primarily due to the fact there are few super low-priced homes on the market, as well as more activity at the middle and upper-end of the market.

Looking forward

-Job growth in the Denver metropolitan area seems to be growing
-Stronger sales at restaurants and many retailers
-For seasonal reasons, sales almost always drop in November from October.

-Home supply rising 20,392 unsold homes November 2010 compared to 18,061 in November 2009

The increase in inventory could result in falling prices, said Jeff Thredgold, chief economist for Vectra Banks. “Supply and demand does work sometimes,” Thredgold said. “Increasing the supply can put some downward pressure on prices.”

Economist Thredgold said that the Denver-area’s economy has not bounced back as quickly as some other areas, which is one of the reasons that demand for housing remains soft. But more than anything it is being buffeted by macro metrics.

Thredgold said uncertainty on a number of national issues are making consumer reluctant to shop on the dotted line, including:

Tax rates
Health care
The ability of Democrats and Republicans to work together

“Even thought mortgage rates are still extremely attractive, despite recent increases, people are keeping their money very close to their vest, so to speak,” Thredgold said. “Plus, for many people, they have a house to sell before they can move up to a bigger one. And it is difficult to sell a home right now.”

For the full story please visit Inside Real Estate News

For those searching for Colorado real estate, there are probably many people who are frustrated by the website registrations required but the lack of stats available for giving up your email and phone number.

But our site COhomefinder has some helpful pages that you will love. For each city in Colorado you can browse all the listings by different categories.

But even better the site updates automatically every day with real estate stats. These include number of homes on the market, minimum price, maximum price, average price and median price. Not only are these convenient to look at to compare different areas that interest you, but are convenient to compare over time as supply increases and decreases.

For example, from the Highlands Ranch listings page:

Check it out for each city you're browsing real estate for. From the top banner on COhomefinder.com select the city that you are interested in.

Here are a few that most visited listing pages by cities:
Boulder
Castle Rock
Colorado Springs
Denver
Fort Collins
Grand Junction

Foreclosures hit 19-month low

Foreclosure sales dropped to a 19-month low in 12 of Colorado’s large metropolitan counties in October, according to a state report released today.

The report by the Colorado Division of Housing, shows that foreclosure public trustee sales fell 38 percent from September to October as some mortgage servicers slowed down the processing of foreclosures in response to the so-called “robo-signing” controversy.

Colorado Foreclosures: $15.7 billion loss

Foreclosure activity from 2009 to 2012 is projected to cost Colorado homeowners $15.7 billion in equity, according to a national report released today by the non-profit Center for Responsible Lending.

If you are moving to Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins or Colorado Springs and want some help to make your relocation as painless as possible, you need to contact us. We are experts in Colorado Real Estate and can help you in your home search and relocation.

We have been helping hundreds of people each year move to Colorado and we know the kind of stuff you need.