Boulder County real estate may not be back to normal, but final figures for 2009 released this month indicate the local market may very well be starting to heal.

For each of the last three months, the number of homes sold in Boulder and Broomfield counties surpassed the number sold during the same period in 2008.

This stands in stark contrast to the previous nine months, during which 2009 monthly figures beat numbers for the comparable 2008  month just once, that being in March when the 2008 statistic was especially low.

For the record, 276 area homes sold in the Boulder/Broomfield area during October 2009, compared to 250 during October 2008. In November of last year 252 homes changed hands, compared to 149 during the same month in 2008.  In the final month of 2009, 211 homes sold, compared to 196 in December of 2008.

The figures were compiled from the IRES Multiple Listing Service (MLS) by the Boulder Area Realtors® Association. The figures do not include so-called "attached dwellings" like condos and townhouses. They also may not include a small number of homes that change hands without being listed on the MLS.





Sales in Boulder City were down in October, 2009, when just 36 homes were purchased compared to 56 in the same month of 2008. But the numbers showed improvement in November and December. In November of 2009, 59 homes changed hands in Boulder compared to 27 during the same month a year earlier.  In December, 2009, 46 homes sold, which was an increase of four homes over the same month in 2008.

As the price trends graph below indicates, the median prices for homes in Boulder did decline on a year-over-year basis during the last three months, but it is hard to tell if the change reflects a weakening of prices or if a greater number of lower-priced homes sold during the last quarter.  Since homes over $1 million were hard to move last year, the second explanation may be the more accurate.

The median price for a home in Boulder was $528,808 for all of 2009, compared to 538,000 for 2008.  This was a decline of 1.7 percent.











The number of home sales in Lousiville also showed some improvement in November and December after pulling back in October. Louisville sales fell from 16 to 14 on a year-over-year basis in October. But year-over-year sales jumped from five to 15 between Novembers and from seven to ten between Decembers. 

After a dip in October, prices also improved in November and December of 2009  when compared to the same periods in 2008

In fact, home prices were remarkably stable in Louisville with a median price of $359,000 for all of 2009.  That figure was up 1.8 percent over 2008 when the 12-month median was $352,500.









Lafayette sales showed more strength in October and November with weakness in December. However, Lafayette home sales historically display more volitility than sales in Boulder and Louisville.

There were  23 homes sold in Lafayette during October of 2009, two more than were sold during the same period in 2008. In November of 2009, 17 Lafayette homes sold, compared to seven during the same month in 2008.  December numbers fell from 13 in 2008 to 11 in 2009.

Median prices also remained stable in Lafayette, dropping just 1.1 percent between 2008 and 2009.  The median price of a home in the city during all of 2009 was  $308,000.  In 2008, the median was $311,500.