National: During September, stock prices reached their highest levels in nearly two years, only to close for the month at a loss. The market ended the quarter with an advance, the second in a row for all of the indexes. (Denver Post, Oct. 1, 2003)
The Mortgage Bankers Association of America has upwardly revised its economic forecast for the second half of the year, predicting GDP growth in the second half at an annual rate of 4.5%. (Mortgage Bankers Association Economic Commentary).
Regional: Regional economists are predicting that Colorado will recover from its recession next year, along with the rest of the U.S. (Denver Post, Sep. 4, 2003) In the September 10, 2003 Denver Post there were predictions of job growth next year of 1.5 to 2%. In today's Post (October 2, 2003) they predict a 1.6 to 1.7% increase in jobs.
Executive attendees at the Colorado Technology Summit on Sep. 13 said that while the worst is over for the regional technology sector, there will be more consolidations, mergers and partnerships ahead. These actions are inevitably followed by layoffs. (Denver Post, Sep. 14, 2003). As of today (Denver Post, October 2, 2003) the rate of layoffs has slowed and some local companies are indicating they will be hiring soon. We will have to wait to see which trend will affect us the most.
A new report shows that many low-income renters still cannot afford housing here. A Colorado household must earn $16.29 an hour (three times the federal minimum wage) to afford a fair-market two-bedroom rental unit. Colorado ranks tenth on the list of least affordable states. (Denver Post, Sep. 9, 2003)
The housing market has some all-time highs, with housing starts, sales and prices setting records. But homeowners have taken out larger loans against the appreciating value of their homes, increasing their debt burden even as they refinance at lower interest rates. (Rocky Mountain News, Sep. 13, 2003)
Denver home prices continue to climb, but concessions made by the sellers may be inflating the actual prices. Those include the seller paying the closing costs and participating in down payment assistance programs. Eleven percent more homes were for sale in September of 2003 as compared to last year. Prices for both average single-family homes and condos were up 4.9 percent from a year ago. (Denver Post, Sep. 24, 2003).
In today's Denver Post they report that there were 2,256 foreclosures in the Metro area in the 3rd quarter. This is a 46% increase over this time last year. This does not include the September data from Jefferson county as that data is still being compiled. The number of bankruptcies is also up but the rate is slowing.
