Denver Post: Denver home values increased 2.8 percent to $209,700 in May compared with the same month a year ago, according to the latest report by real estate website Zillow.com.
Denver saw the third largest bump in home values across the country behind Phoenix and Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Nationally, home values fell nearly 1 percent to $148,100, the smallest year-over-year decline since October 2007. Compared with April, national values in May rose 0.5 percent, according to the May Zillow Real Estate Market Reports.
“It is promising to see consecutive months of national home value increases, especially during a period in which we’d expected more downward pressure due to foreclosures,” said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries. “Attention has now shifted to the tug-of-war situation with inventory, where buyers want to buy but sellers don’t want to – or can’t – sell.”
He said this phenomenon is due to negative equity and rational seller behavior at a market bottom and “will make for a more volatile housing recovery than what we initially expected.”
While Denver is outpacing the national average on home values, the city’s rental market lags the country’s growth rate.
Rents in Denver rose 3.6 percent to $1,461 in May. Rents across the country increased 4.6 percent to $1,252.
Roughly six out of every 10,000 homes in the country is being foreclosed, down from 7.2 out of every 10,000 in April, according to Zillow.
