Luxury home market picks up | Inside Real Estate News

This 7-bedroom, 9-bath home with 10,427 square feet, sold last month for $3.4 million.

The luxury home marker in the Denver is gaining momentum, according to two separate reports released today.

Edie Marks, a broker with Kentwood Real Estate, whose name has long been associated with selling high-end homes, said on Friday that the reports are telling it like it is.

?There has been a major turn around,? Marks said. ?The problem that sales had been crappy and when there were sales, people were stealing them. The good news, if you can think of it that way, is that inventory is disappearing.?

Well-heeled sellers are increasingly signing on the dotted line, she said.

?For homes priced between $2 million and $2.5 million, it is the hottest I have ever seen in my lifetime,? Marks said. ?Maybe from $1.5 million to $2.5 million. February was an unbelievable month. I?ve already had $15 million in sales and I had $30.4 million in all of 2011.?

A report by Kentwood Real Estate, which covered the counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, Elbert and Jefferson counties, showed there were 24 single-family homes that sold last month, a 20 percent increase from the 20 sales in February 2010. The dollar volume was $36.8 million, a 31.2 percent increase from the $28.05 million in February 2011.

The average sales price was $1.53 million, a 9.3 percent increase and the most expensive home that sold was a 10,427-square-foot, 7-bedroom, 9-bathroom home in Cherry Hills that sold for $3.4 million. Records show the home was purchased by Denver Nuggets player Maybryner ?Nene? Rodney Hilario, and his wife, Lauren. The home price is 47.8 percent more than the highest sales price of $2.3 million in February 2011.

In the first two months of the year, $72.6 million in homes priced at $1 million or more sold in the area, according to Kentwood, which used Metrolist data. That is 14 percent higher than the $63.74 million during the same time period of 2011. Year-to-date, the number of transactions were up 14.7 percent to 39 from 34.

Kentwood also noted that there are 495 single-family homes in that lofty price range on the market. Of those, about 70 percent are priced below $2 million. Only 21 are priced above $5 million and one of those is under contact.

Bauer?s report ?includes Boulder County, in addition to the other seven counties. There were two condo sales above $1 million last month, both of them in Boulder. They sold for $2.12 million each, a sales price that equates to $829 per square foot.

For single-family homes priced at $1 million or more, 10 were in Arapahoe County, seven were in Denver, six were in Boulder, six were in Douglas County and two were in Jefferson County.

?There is still too much inventory in the luxury market, but the inventory is decreasing,? Bauer said. ?The luxury market is holding its own. I thought February was very positive.?

It?s not only positive for the buyers and sellers, but for the overall economy, even though most people can?t afford homes in that price range. The average price of a single-family home sale in February was $270,821.

?It?s important for us to have activity in all parts of the market,? Bauer said.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

?

Related Posts:

Source: http://insiderealestatenews.com/2012/03/luxury-home-market-picks-up/

mark madoff disturbia michael myers power outage snow storm snow storm reggie bush