WESTERN HOUSING MARKETS

Colorado No Longer Tops in the Nation in Foreclosures

By Headwaters News, 12-13-06

The housing market in the West gets mixed reviews today. Colorado officials were no doubt pleased with November’s report from the California company that markets foreclosed properties. The Denver Post reports today that RealtyTrac, Inc.’s monthly ranking found that Colorado is no longer No. 1 in the nation for foreclosure filings. The Centennial State had been at the top of the foreclosure filing list for eight consecutive months, but in November, a 10 percent drop in filings there, coupled with a 12 percent increase in such filings in Nevada, moved Colorado from No. 1 to No. 2 in the nation.

A Colorado economist said he expected Colorado to continue its tumble down the ranks as he anticipates foreclosures will continue to rise in Arizona, Nevada and California. Vectra Bank Colorado economist Jeff Thredgold said real estate speculators and “flippers,” people who buy homes only to turn around and sell them quickly, in those states who used interest-only loans to buy homes would drive foreclosure rates up in those states, and to a certain extent in Florida as well.

But another economist warned that a worsening in other states’ markets doesn’t mean the slide is over in Colorado. U.S. Bank of America economist Tucker Hart Adams said she believed housing prices in Colorado will continue to decline, as will housing sales and construction of new homes.

Meanwhile in Utah, a national report said that rents there are outpacing incomes.

In its annual study of affordable housing supplies, the National Low Income Housing Coalition ranked Utah 24th in the nation in housing affordability.

The Deseret News’ article on the NLIHC’s “Out of Reach” report said that the average hourly wage of Utah renters was $9.92, and that the national study indicated that in order to afford to pay rent, wage earners in Utah must earn $13.04 an hour. But housing advocates said the study underestimated the hourly wage needed to rent, and said renters must earn at least $15 an hour to afford rent in Utah.

The study prompted advocates in Utah to campaign harder for the removal of sales tax on food and for an increase in state funding for affordable housing prices.

Colorado’s Pitkin County was the only Western county to make the Top 10 for most expensive counties.

A quick review of the report’s stats for the eight states in the Rocky Mountain region shows that in most of those eight states, renters make up about one-third of the households and that roughly half of those households did not earn enough money to afford a 2-bedroom apartment at fair-market rents.

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