Housing market in Pueblo bouncing back

The housing market is bouncing back, according to figures provided by the Pueblo Association of Realtors.

Local realtors closed 178 home sales in March, compared to 161 in March 2014. The median price for home sales this March was $144,896, up from $130,990 in the same month last year.

“In the last 2 1/2 months, the door opened and the buyers started coming out and all of a sudden we’re seeing homes sell very quickly,” said RE/MAX agent David Anderson, who’s been a realtor for 30 years.

Anderson said in recent months, homes have been on the market for between seven to 30 days.

“Last week I had two of them that sold within two days,” he said.

There are about 650 homes currently on the market, according to Anderson. He said in recent years the housing inventory has been closer to 1,600 and 1,800.

“Sellers haven’t been putting their houses on the market. And we’ve had enough buyers that have picked up,” Anderson said.

The low inventory is driving up demand for developers like Roger Fonda, who owns Eagleridge Homes.

“We have a lot of people that want to do this, live here, but they haven’t been able to sell their existing homes or they didn’t think they could get enough for them and that has started to change now,” Fonda said.

Fonda owns several properties on the northside of Pueblo near Eagleridge Boulevard. He said it’s not only the locals who are buying.

“Of the five houses we built in the last year, four of [the buyers] are from out of town or out of state,” Fonda said.

Fonda said he’s looking for more workers but said many of them left when the recession hit Pueblo.

As for the homes selling the fastest, Anderson said it’s the homes priced between $150,000 and $250,000.