Jackie Garcia shows a custom home on 78 acres near Parker, with accompanying stables and caretaker apartment.

“We’re positioning RE/MAX Professionals to be a major force in Denver’s luxury market, particularly as that market recovers,” said Leeann Iacino, President of RE/MAX Professionals, in announcing the appointment. “The combined influence that our companies have had in higher priced neighborhoods suggests that we’re going to be very well situated as that recovery occurs.”

Garcia said she expects the luxury priced market to recover at a more tempered pace than lower and mid-priced homes, but that a recovery had begun. “We’re already seeing higher traffic and more interest in the higher ranges,” Garcia said in accepting the appointment. “We’re also finding a better situation for non-conforming, jumbo financing now than was the case for the past year.”

Garcia expects her new position to add strength to RE/MAX Professionals’ capabilities in serving luxury home buyers and sellers, but also in helping prepare newer agents for the special requirements of the luxury market. “This is the moment for anyone who wants to take advantage of the current price picture to begin actively searching luxury home listings,” Garcia added. “There are incredible buys now, with some sellers willing to do owner-carried financing.”
Luxury homes will be the focus of a special Luxury Home Tour that RE/MAX Professionals will sponsor 3-7 p.m. on Sept. 23rd and 30th. The tour will feature special sponsors for each participating home, showcasing luxury automobiles and furnishings.

In addition to the Certified Luxury Home designation, Garcia has three additional Realtor designations: the Graduate Realtor Institute (GRI), the Certified Realtor Specialist (CRS), and the Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR). The four designations are collectively held by only a small percentage of agents nationally.

Garcia notes that RE/MAX Professionals has enhanced its capabilities for marketing acreage properties using aerial photography. Jackie Garcia and her Mile High Dream Team can be reached at 303-257-7788, or at RE/MAX Professionals’ Highlands Ranch Office, 1745 Shea Center Drive, Suite 100, in Highlands Ranch. Mile High Dream Team is on the web at www.milehighdreamteam.com. For information about becoming a broker-owner of luxury homes at RE/MAX Professionals, contact Leeann Iacino at 303-874-1316, or visit PrestigiousDenverHomes.com.

Becky Kenny of RE/MAX Professionals shows a listing at 179 Satsuma Place in Plum Creek, Castle Rock, priced at $699,000, backing to the Pete Dye-designed golf course.

“We’ve been predicting for six months that we’d begin seeing appreciation in the lowest price ranges, and that the effect would begin creeping into the middle ranges,” says broker Jack O’Connor, a principal owner of the newly combined RE/MAX Professionals. He issues a monthly report to agents on market prospects.

As builders and Realtors look to the data on sales issued at the first of each month, they’re seeing concrete evidence of price appreciation affecting homes up to the $275,000 range. O’Connor reports that homes in the 7-county Denver metro area priced $250,000 and below have seen around 3% appreciation since the first of the year.

All markets are local, of course, and some neighborhoods are faring better still, some not as well. Homes in the highest ranges are still battling too much inventory. In those higher ranges, O’Connor predicts, no significant appreciation can be expected for two years.

Meanwhile, O’Connor expects this month’s data to show increases in sales…and a modest increase in inventory levels, well within the bounds that will likely keep the price curve on the rise, at least for low to middle price range homes.

None of those factors were what figured into the analysis of nationally known real estate expert Barbara Corcoran, who gave Today viewers her picks of the five national cities most likely to recover first. Top pick, very best prospects in the nation: Denver.

“This city is clearly on a rebound,” Corcoran told viewers. “It’s really the perfect real estate success story. It had one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation for years running, and they’ve now cut that foreclosure rate in half. Prices are moving up just now for the first time after seven years of being down.”

Also figuring into Corcoran’s calculations in “most likely to recover” are job base, good weather, a well educated work force, an adequate supply of first-time buyers to fuel the move-up market, a relative lack of ‘over-building’ of condos and commercial real estate, and a vital downtown area.

Denver, she noted, is a young market, has one of the best park systems in the country, and home prices (average 3-bedroom, 2-bath home, acoording to MSNBC just $193,000) that look appealing, compared even to other cities that she ranked close on the list, also likely to do well in coming months: Raleigh, Austin, Seattle and San Francisco.

O’Connor notes that the Denver area is showing one of its lowest summer inventories of homes for sale seen in ten years.

“Watch for appreciation to begin creeping into higher price ranges,” he adds. O’Connor cautions sellers to know where their home is positioned relative to others, to negotiate a highest realistic price.

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Jack O’Connor, principal in the new RE/MAX Professionals, shows a listing at 1298 Bellaire in Denver. The home has 3,400 square feet including a finished basement, at $585,000. Home inventories are at the lowest level in the 7-county area in six years.

“Denver is a declining inventory market, especially in the starter home ranges,” broker Jack O’Connor told me, as the new month’s Metrolist data came out this week.

O’Connor, former managing broker with Prestige Real Estate Group and one of the principal owners of RE/MAX Professionals, combining Prestige with two large RE/MAX offices, publishes a monthly report to agents on how the market is performing. What the data show now, O’Connor says, is a far cry from what inventory looked like in 2006 and 2007, when sales were higher and when California and Florida were booming.

As of the first of May, inventory in the 7-county area stands at 21,454 homes…almost 10,000 units below the supply on late spring of 2006; about 6,000 less than a year ago.

That’s the smallest supply in six years, O’Connor notes. Even more startlingly, the supply for sale this month actually dropped from that available at the first of April…the first time that’s happened in ten years. “Inventory typically swells in spring,” O’Connor told me. “Having total inventory fall on the first of May is very atypical, and underscores just how low the supply really is.”

In the market under $250,000, where first-time buyers find their opportunities, the supply of homes calculates to just over 3-1/2 months. “That’s obviously a seller’s market, and explains why our agents are reporting multiple offers on some of their lower priced listings,” O’Connor said.

For higher priced homes, the corresponding supply gets larger and the time they spend on the market gets longer. “But when a seller of a lower priced home sells, they can move up,” O’Connor notes. “It takes about six months for that effect to make its way through the next higher $250,000 price niche, and for that range to begin selling faster.”

O’Connor adds that for the most expensive homes, a smaller inventory drop is now likely. “It’s tough to get financing at that price range, but it’s likely we’ll see continued drop in the million-dollar inventory over the next months, as well,” he says.

So, for sellers of high priced homes, help is on the way. For sellers of more reasonably priced homes, O’Connor says, know where your home is positioned relative to others, to negotiate a highest realistic price.

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Jack O’Connor, principal in the new RE/MAX Professionals, shows a listing at 1298 Bellaire in Denver. The home has 3,400 square feet including a finished basement, at $585,000. Home inventories are at the lowest level in the 7-county area in six years.

“Denver is a declining inventory market, especially in the starter home ranges,” broker Jack O’Connor told me, as the new month’s Metrolist data came out this week.

O’Connor, former managing broker with Prestige Real Estate Group and one of the principal owners of RE/MAX Professionals, combining Prestige with two large RE/MAX offices, publishes a monthly report to agents on how the market is performing. What the data show now, O’Connor says, is a far cry from what inventory looked like in 2006 and 2007, when sales were higher and when California and Florida were booming.
As of the first of May, inventory in the 7-county area stands at 21,454 homes…almost 10,000 units below the supply on late spring of 2006; about 6,000 less than a year ago.

That’s the smallest supply in six years, O’Connor notes. Even more startlingly, the supply for sale this month actually dropped from that available at the first of April…the first time that’s happened in ten years. “Inventory typically swells in spring,” O’Connor told me. “Having total inventory fall on the first of May is very atypical, and underscores just how low the supply really is.”

In the market under $250,000, where first-time buyers find their opportunities, that calculates to just over 3-1/2 months supply. “That’s obviously a seller’s market, and explains why our agents are reporting multiple offers on some of their lower priced listings,” O’Connor said.
For higher priced homes, the corresponding supply gets larger and the time they spend on the market gets longer. “But when a seller of a lower priced home sells, they can move up,” O’Connor notes. “It takes about six months for that effect to make its way through the next higher $250,000 price niche, and for that range to begin selling faster.”

O’Connor adds that for the most expensive homes, a smaller inventory drop is now likely. “It’s tough to get financing at that price range, but it’s likely we’ll see continued drop in the million-dollar inventory over the next months, as well,” he says.

So, for sellers of high priced homes, help is on the way. For sellers of more reasonably priced homes, O’Connor says, know where your home is positioned relative to others, to negotiate a highest realistic price.

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