In this Won’t You Be My Neighbor? edition, I’m giving you a market analysis for the entire City of Denver. Normally, I break down zip codes or small townships but this is the last blog of the year and it’s a good time to see things in terms of a big picture. Also, I will only look at detached single family residences. Because of the large amount of data, I think it’s worth comparing to the Home Sales Snapshot for November which includes an 11 county region. The first table below has information for sales in the last 90 days (Sept. 21-Dec. 21) for the entire City of Denver.
Do the numbers look like what you expected? Maybe a little higher? Remember that the median prices are more realistic to what you will find out there. It is true that 984 homes were above the median price of $425,000 but by definition, just as many were sold below that price. As far as size, the median price reflected a 3 bed /2 bath home with a total square footage of 2,047. Let’s now paint a picture with a broad brush of what you could expect to pay for this type of home. Let’s assume you are putting down 5% and getting a 4% 30-year fixed mortgage. That would be $21,250 for the down payment. You will also need around $8,900 for closing costs. That gives you a principal/interest payment of $1,928. You will need to add at least $500 to your escrow payment fees for insurance, property taxes and mortgage insurance for a total house payment of at least $2,428.How much must you earn to qualify for this payment? Let’s only use what lenders call the back-end ratio of 43% and assume you have no other debt like credit cards or car payments. That means your monthly gross income should be at least $5,647 or $67,758 per year. Any debt would increase the required income to qualify.
