Buy or rent around Denver?

Planning to buy or rent a place around Denver by the end of this coming summer. Does anyone know if the market is good to buy right now? The price range I will be looking in is $200k-$280k. Looking for a nice 2-3 bed Townhouse or single family home. A garage and back yard would be a huge bonus! I have been looking online and I like the Green Valley Ranch area. I will be going to school at CCA and UC Denver and do not want crazy commute times. Recommendations on neighborhoods are appreciated!

 

Not to sound douchey but....

 

I lived south of town in Douglas county for a while... about 15 years. I bought my home in 1998 for $185k, sold it in 2014 for $460k. You're looking for a shoebox.

 

Nothing against Green Valley Ranch but that was Fore Closure city when economy went bad. I would try to find something elsewhere unless this is a short term kind of deal. I will add that you are going to have a commute from there to UC Denver too.

 

It depends though.

If you're looking to pay cash for a place in that range, you're in great shape, but you'll still end up with a small mortgage.

Here in Larimer county (60 miles north), "entry level" housing is between $300 - $325K.

My wife does mortgages for a living, that's how I know.

 

It is definitely not a buyer's market at the moment. I'm more aware of what's going on up north here than down in Denver, but I can tell you that up here your price range is a condo with townhomes starting around your upper end. Can you find exceptions? Sure. But they're rare, go quick (usually to investors), or need work. You're going to want to talk to a realtor in the general region you're looking to get a solid idea of what you can expect. As recently mentioned in the BS thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/colorado-b-s-thread.131441/page-6700#post-16219187 and there was some other discussion recently (but who knows how many pages back it's buried now).

It seems like the last buyer window was 2011-ish. Since then things have just been climbing. For a long while nothing new was coming on, so supply is still well behind demand. I've been looking pretty close at what it would take and wanting to buy within the next year, and particularly after the homebuyer class I took last weekend, it's just looking like it isn't feasible with the market the way it is (for me anyway). Even if it were, I still think things are way over-valued - not that there's much risk of loss either.

 

That's good to know. Do you have any recommendations? I thought of Green Valley Ranch because I saw all the adds for new builds in my price range in there.

I plan to get a relator as soon as I get out there next month so that I can have more information on the market. I could probably stretch my purchase price to $300k but I really do not want to put that much strain on my wife and I while in college. This is just a starter place for the next 5 years or so.

 

Do you own any guns?

 

My 2 cents, get to know Denver first. What I like, or Marty likes, might not be at all what you like.

There is no value buy right now, so no need to rush into anything.

I would get the smallest, as close to school or light rail station- to ditch a vehicle as possible, least expensive place you can find. Save whatever you can to put towards your future purchase post college. Mortgages, regardless of rate, are money losers unless you stay in them at least 5 years (Closing costs, etc).

When you find a place to buy, explore both your VA and regular loan options, VA has it benefits but also has a big funding- closing cost piece too. Only get a fixed loan for time period you can afford the payment and still have money left for other interests.

 

Up here they basically say talk to a lender first, because the first thing an agent is going to ask you is if you're pre-approved and for how much. It's typically a multiple offer situation with every sale, and 'easier' offers, not just highest, can often win. In fact, one of the things they were mentioning in the class last week was even your loan type can have an impact. For example FHA loans have some requirements about the condition of the place, down to things like peeling paint is unacceptable. Because of this, some people won't even deal with someone wanting to pay with an FHA loan, particularly if it means having to make repairs for the sale. And of course from the buyer end, you find the place you want and it doesn't meet the conditions so they won't approve the loan... One of the presenters related a story like this where the seller wouldn't budge so the buyer got permission to go do necessary repairs himself at his own cost, before the sale, so the loan could be approved. Seller's market indeed.

Definitely talk to a lender about options. This was the one section out of an all day class that actually had stuff I didn't already know most of, and the sheer number of mortgage types and their differences/requirements wasn't something any resource I had come across mentioned anything about.

 

Sure do Marty!

@acidchylde you make some good points I was unaware of. I have been looking online at the new builds by Oakwood homes and a few other builders. Would buying a new build property where the price is already set take out most of that hassle? I have noticed quite a few in the area of $260k.

 

Well your first mistake would be assuming the price is 'set'. There are typically 'finish' options that can swing that price around a lot, and everything is negotiable. But obviously just like with a new car they're not going to take much loss when there's other people who will probably be willing to pay the asking price. I don't know how new construction affects loan products - as I said that's the area I knew least about and still need to meet with some to learn more. I can tell you that there were a few times during the class they specifically asked or mentioned people buying new construction - things like you should get it inspected even if it's new, that it is more likely to come with a warranty but knowing what that means/covers, and what it means for property taxes the first year (taxes don't know about the house, so first year is really low on just the land, then jump when the assessor catches up).

I would definitely investigate builders if you're going that route. Find some people who live in neighborhoods they've done and talk to them. The national and regional builders have widely varying reputations and quality. I've done work for Oakwood, designing one of their subdivisions. They are, or at least were, good and decently concerned with quality. I think some people on here might live in Thompson River Ranch, which is one of theirs up here on the south east side of Loveland (it's technically Johnstown), and might have some input though it's from back in the mid 2000's. There are other builders that we worked with that I wouldn't even think about buying a home from, and some national builders like KB used to be the same. I don't know if the intervening time, market crash, and subsequent rebound/rebuilding of their company might have changed their quality and culture.

 

@acidchylde thank you very much for all this great info. You have pointed out so much that I do not know. I think when I get to Denver and start looking, I too will take advantage of a house buying class. I really need to find a realtor and do a lot of homework. This whole process is proving to be a lot more involved then I foolishly assumed it would be.

 

It is definitely not as easy as the web ads would like to make you think it is, or just browsing around looking at Zillow or something. I definitely recommend the homebuying class (they're run by different people in different places, make sure the one you attend qualifies as meeting the requirement to take one for down payment assistance or whatever else you might use, ie certain loan types - more than half the people in mine were already under contract and about to close, and just taking the class to meet the requirement as opposed to learn about the process). Another resource I found that I thought was pretty good is https://michaelbluejay.com/house/

 

FYI- Don't forget that new builds hardly ever include window "blind stuff" and that shit gets expensive fast given windows and sliders that will need it.

 

In Arvada you might be able to find a "handymans dream" for high 200s, but for move in ready low 300s...

I bought before my neighborhood started really climbing in 2015 for 240, and now it's worth 360+ And once light rail opens we should see another bump.... which might push us to move

 

Seems like that feds will never allow that to open until the Airport disaster of a rail systems gets fixed.

 

Colorado Public Utilitys Comission is now holding up the G-Line, feds have approved to finish testing..... but CPUC is all like "nah, yall can't have public transportation"

 

OP did you end up buying a house?

 

I live in Arvada and love it, but buying here won’t be cheap if I do.