As the new year starts, real estate professionals across Northern Colorado have a sense of optimism in the market as we’ve weathered the holidays and can now focus on the business at hand – helping our clients take advantage of the best options and opportunities on either side of the transaction. This optimism, whether founded or not, comes after years of pretty stagnant market progress in Fort Collins and hinges on a few items: inventory, buyer demand and interest rates.

We're always excited to turn the calendar page and start out a new year with renewed optimism and the expectation that "things are gonna be alright". Sometimes, we tell ourselves those things to detract from the fears we have about the future - willing the good to come in to outshine the scary. Luckily, so far, so good - but we're only a month in. There are both headwinds and tailwinds to the market in 2026, which leads me to project we won't have a massive move one way or the other. The difficult thing to project are the large political and economic fears that affect both buyers and sellers - commodity/stock market/crypto declines and changes to monetary policy or leadership - all of these can quickly turn optimism into pessimism. For now, I'm looking for the good stuff. Interest rates are about 1% lower than they were last year at this time. This gives buyers more buying power and opportunity, while bringing sellers more demand when it comes time to sell. Time will tell!

The holidays are over and the hustle and bustle of December has subsided giving many real estate professionals an opportunity to look back and try and make sense of one of the most unique years in real estate we’ve seen in decades. 2025 was certainly not a typical year as political and economic impacts seemed to come one after another. These impacts often tugged in separate directions leaving many of us scratching our heads trying to determine short term trends and direction for the market. Our buyers and sellers felt that uncertainty.

As we head into the last month of the year, the market hasn't given us much guidance on the direction we can expect in the next few months, which is frustrating, yet somewhat typical. November, December and January are typically the months where there is just too little activity going on to paint a picture of a recovering or declining market. That being said, since the market has been pretty static for the last 3 years at this point, a mixed bag of a market is essentially indicative of a sideways path. Expect more of the same through the holidays. Here's hoping we can eek out price improvements in 2025.

The leaves have fallen, the candy is mostly gone, colder days are just around the corner, but the NoCo real estate market still has a little activity. Normally, November and December are considered pretty dead months, mainly because the hassle of showing a home during the holidays, cold weather, or dark evenings is just not conducive to an easy home sale. But, with lingering inventory, interest rates remaining at the lowest level in the last year, and stable buyer demand - more transactions are getting done in Northern Colorado later into the year. Will the trend continue as the temps drop? Time will tell.

September was a strong month in Northern Colorado real estate, buoyed by a very short term dip in interest rates early in the month to help some buyers jump in to the real estate market and actually commit. While this dip was short lived, rates have remained under 6.5%, which has been promising. More promising was the strong sales activity across the region, with the Loveland/Berthoud market leading the charge. The Fed did drop interest rates in their September meeting, however, these rates aren't directly tied to mortgages. The silver lining is that it appears future rate drops are coming, and economic data is indicating mortgage rates will not get any higher. All of this is coming when the market is generally cooling, but it appears we will have a little more energy in October, November and December this year as our inventory gets sold off.

While it definitely doesn't feel like we had a strong month in real estate, the numbers don't lie. In the midst of some listings sitting on the market, crossing over the 120 day mark, many well priced, and turnkey homes are still attracting their buyers. Buyers don't have all the power in the market but because there are much fewer of them around, they do get to dictate the trajectory of the market. Many buyers are still waiting around for better rates, to either qualify for more home, or just qualify for any home for that matter. And it appears relief might be in sight as a poor jobs report is helping to bring rates down in the first couple weeks of September. Could this spur a late in season feeding frenzy? Perhaps. Sellers would appreciate more action for sure.

The past 2-3 years have been an interesting ride in the Northern Colorado real estate market. As soon as interest rates went from the pandemic era 3%, to the 6%+ range, many buyers were sidelined while they either saved more, contemplated a more affordable market, or continued to rent until timing was better. After 2 or 3 years, conditions have largely remained unchanged - home prices have essentially been flat since 2022 and interest rates have hovered anywhere between 6.5% and 7.5%. But, right around springtime this year, we noticed that inventory began to rise, and fewer and fewer buyers came to the market. This has led to some of the highest inventory levels we've seen in over a decade, and a market in which sellers need to make hard decisions to incentivize buyers. Because of higher inventory levels and fewer buyers, sellers (and their agents) are now using price reductions to motivate buyers to bring offers. Price reductions, or how we frame them in the business: "price improvements", provide great opportunities to put your home back in front of interested buyers. Here's a breakdown of how they work: