What's going on with the high-end Denver market?

The top 10% of the homes, pricewise, as those that sell for over $460K.
- The top 5% starts at $600K+.
- The top 1% of the most expensive homes sold are those over $1.125MM

I took a look at 1/1/2008 to 6/30/2010, for all of the solds that were reports in the MLS for the Denver metro area. So that doesn’t include Boulder, Ft Collins, Colorado Springs, or the mountain resort areas. Here’s what’s going on:
- Sales were up in 2Q 2010 vs. 2Q 2009 (+13%).
- The number of REO sales peaked in 1Q 2009, and has declined since then.
- The number of Short Sales has been climbing steadily since their 3Q 2008.
- For the first time, there were more luxury home S/S than REO sales in 2Q 2010.
If you look at the number of distress sales (S/S + REO) relative to the total number of sales, you see that the distress ratio is pretty consistently between 10 – 15% of the market.

Prices for luxury homes fell from $250 per square foot (2008) to $230 per square foot (most of 2009). They did recently increase +3% in 2Q 2010.
- While “regular” sales are around $239 / sq ft; distress sales sell at about a 20% discount. REO homes sold for $196 / sq ft and short sales sold for $201 / sq ft