Denver home values fall less than nation's

Despite all of the doom and gloom surround the Denver-area residential real estate market, the local housing market fares quite well relative to the rest of the country.
The latest report that shows this trend comes from Zillow, the company that made its name in the real estate industry by estimating the values of individual homes across the nation.

A Zillow report released today shows that homes prices in the Denver-Aurora metropolitan statistical area, the 21st largest MSA in the U.S., dropped by 5.1 percent in the first quarter from a year ago.

That is consistent with the S&P/Case-Shiller index of 20 markets released last week.

Denver Financial Center sold for $84M

But the 666,653-square-foot Seventeenth Street Plaza at 1225 17th St., at the other end of downtown from Denver Financial Center, is on the market for sale by owner JP Morgan Chase Co. with an asking price of $385 per square foot, or $250 million, according to brokers. Seventeenth Street Plaza is similar to Denver Financial Center's tower component in height and age, in that both buildings stand about 30 stories tall and were completed in the early 1980s.

Metro Denver office buildings have been attractive to investors in recent years, and continue to be, according to recent commercial real estate reports.

Why Some Denver Homes Don´t Sell

A couple reasons that cause´s the asking price to be too high are unrealistic expectations from the seller and an over enthusiastic listing agent. These reasons and many more can cause a house not to sell. Even in cases where an offer is made on an overpriced home, the hopes of the homeowner and buyer can be shattered when the buyer realizes he will have some problems financing the home. One way to determine if you have an overpriced home is by checking the prices of similar homes that are nearby. If those homes are selling for less than yours, you may have priced your house too high. In the end it is the buyer that sets the price of the home because they are shopping for the best deal and will typically pick a similar home that has the lower asking price.

Forbes ranks Denver among 10 riskiest real estate markets

Forbes.com this week ranked Denver the eighth riskiest real estate market in the country, based on its analysis of the 40 largest metropolitan areas.

Detroit was the riskiest market on the Forbes list, followed by Orlando, Fla.; Cleveland; St. Louis; Miami; Las Vegas; Sacramento, Calif.; Denver; Tampa, Fla.; and Phoenix.

Denver's ranking was based largely on the number of foreclosures the city has experienced, which amount to 2.6 percent of the market, according to Forbes.com.