As I pen this a month after the presidential election and now heading into the final days of 2016 I’m happy to report the real estate market has survived, so far, any post election fall-out and in the end its been another amazing year for West Wash Park. As always there are some expected results and a few things that surprised me–let’s take a look at some of the particulars in this 2016 Washington Park Market Review.
2016 Washington Park Market Review
Overall in 2016 prices for our homes rose 7%. To put that in dollar terms your two-story Victorian that last year would have sold for $600,000 is worth $42,000 dollars more today. That’s pretty amazing! The average value of a Wash Park home is now about double the average value of all Denver homes.
A number of factors lay at the cause of this appreciation, which has been fairly consistent for the past four years. On the micro-level the total number of sales in Wash Park was down 10% from 2015, which means fewer of you needed to or decided to sell. That affects supply and demand, which pushes prices up. On the macro-level Denver has once again been a net-positive population growth area to the tune of around 100,000 people. Most of that growth has been along the Front Range. Added to that is a consistent deficit of available single family homes all of which result in price inflation.
One property type that has had a volatile price history has been duplexes. Not so long ago, in 2008, there were at any given time about 35 new construction duplexes on the market and in the first eight months of that year almost none sold. Those days are long gone and with it the volatility. Newer construction duplexes saw a jump in value also of 12% this year and the time it took to sell dropped from an average of 75 days in 2015 to 54 days in 2016. Duplexes have become fairly hot commodities.
A homes location within our neighborhood continues to have a strong influence on value. As one would expect the closer you are to the park the higher the value. On average homes west of Logan (Logan to Sherman) had a value 30% less than homes from Logan to Ogden. Homes on Corona and Downing consistently set the bar for price averaging 40% higher than the rest of West Wash Park.
Four homes sold for more than a million dollars with the highest price being $1,325,000, paid for a 1911 pop-top fully gutted and rebuilt in 2005 on Corona.
It has indeed been a great year to be a homeowner in Wash Park. We are blessed with a near perfect combination of charm, amenities and location making this just a special place to call home. It has been a pleasure to serve many of you and I look forward to being of service in the New Year.
See you around the neighborhood,
Tom & Denise Snyder