Thursday, December 13, 2018

So Denver got rejected as Amazon's Headquarters.... now what?


Denver, and other Amazon HQ2 rejects, could see even higher home value growth in the next year, experts says

Denver didn't get Amazon's HQ2, but what it may end up getting is higher-than-normal home value growth.

In the next year, a handful of metro areas that competed for Amazon's second headquarters are expected to outperform the national rate of home value appreciation, according to 2018 Q4 Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey.

Denver, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Dallas were named as the four markets most likely to see this, according to the survey. All four were among the 20 finalists for the Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) HQ2.

"The quarterly survey, sponsored by Zillow and conducted by Pulsenomics LLC, asked more than 100 real estate economists and investment experts for their predictions about the U.S. housing market, including which three markets they believe are most likely to outperform the U.S., and which three are most likely to underperform in 2019," a release from Zillow Tuesday said.

Denver got the second-most votes for over performance in the survey, second only to Washington, D.C., a winner of HQ2. In addition, 
VEROS Real Estate Solutions is predicting that metro Denver home prices will rise by 9.5% from Fall to September 2019.

Nationwide, home values have increased 7.7 percent through the first ten months of 2018, while Denver has only seen a 6.2 percent increase, according to Zillow. Boston, a finalist for HQ2 and Washington, D.C., also lagged behind the national average rate so far this year, according to Zillow.

"Many of the candidate cities that were not ultimately selected could see spillover gains in 2019," said Zillow senior economist Aaron Terrazas.

Commercial development opportunities that had been proposed as sites for Denver's bid to get Amazon's HQ2 also remain on the market in many of Denver's suburbs such as Sterling Ranch, Commerce City, Lone Tree, Thornton and Louisville.
-Denver Business Journal