A Look into Current and Future State of Northern CO Housing
By Nicholas Smith
FT: Professional Real Estate Expert Alex Wolff
“Home For Sale Sign” by MarkMoz12 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
This is an over the phone interview with real estate expert Alex Wolff on his thoughts about the state of Northern Colorado Realty and his experience as a realtor. Mr. Wolff is a part of a company known as the Dixon Group, a trusted agency that helps market and sell homes across Colorado. He has been in the field just short of five years and averages 45 to 50 transactions a year compared to the average 6 to 15 sales of other realtors. He is an extremely impressive and trustworthy realty expert and I learned a lot about the state and importance of the market from talking with him.
Nick: I just wanted to thank you again for taking the time to meet with me. It shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes. I just have like 6 to 10 questions for you.
Alex: So tell me, what’s sort of the goal of this article?
Nick: Well, right now I’m trying to write about the availability of houses in NOCO because right now Fort Collins is a sellers market right?
Alex: Ok sounds good, in fact, all of Northern Colorado, most of the country is a sellers market right now.
Nick: Well for starters, how long have you been selling houses and showing properties and stuff like that?
Alex: So June will be five years that I’m in the business and you… I think you called us through Google, and you would’ve called the Dixon group, the Dixon group, we recently acquired an entire brokerage, and I do about 45 to 50 transactions a year, I think most agents do around 6 to 12 so you know, I have acquired a great deal of experience in a relatively short amount of time.
Nick: Wow, yea, that’s extremely impressive. Do you have a favorite part or favorite aspect of the job that you love doing that just draws you to the position really?
Alex: Really it’s the people, you know? Like when I’m able to connect with people that not only want my help, but are just super eager about the process and you know really fun to work with, they make it all not only worth it, but they’re really the reason I do it, I love helping people; and it can sometimes be a thankless job so when you get to help people that are super appreciative, it’s a cherry on top.
Nick: Right, that kind of leads me into something else I was curious about, what does your typical customer usually look like? Do you sell to a lot of families, maybe college graduates?
Alex: Fantastic question, so we do sell to a lot of first time homebuyers, so a lot of the people that we work with are people who are either just entering the workforce because they graduated college, or they’ve been working for a number of years and are just finally saving up, or are just finally getting the gumption to enter the process. So a significant portion of what I or really any agent on the team does is consult with new buyers. With first time homebuyers, I sit them down and explain the whole process A to Z so you know what to expect from the process, but also from the market and what it’s doing.
Nick: Makes sense because a lot of first time homebuyers are unfamiliar with the market, I know I definitely am, I had to do a lot of research before contacting you.
Alex: So what exactly have you learned?
Nick: Not as much as I would’ve liked to honestly, I’ve been looking into The availability of homes in Fort Collins. I was really interested in how you think the city is doing at Supplying new homes for the growing population of Fort Collins?
Alex: So this ties into a nationwide issue, so let me take you back to… and this was before I was in real estate, but it’s important to know where we came from and understanding what happened in the past because it’s a lot of insight on what’s happening today. So there’s been a lot of chatter of recession and prices falling and things like that right? And everybody wants to point back to 2008 and I’m sure you’re familiar in some way with what happened then. It was a confluence of factors where we were already in a buyers market for about three years, meaning that buyers had the upper hand and there was an over abundance of homes because the builders were building them at that time, however, once that happened, all the builders stopped building for several years. And so what we’re experiencing now, which trickles down to local levels, as a nation we’re about 15 years behind, in terms of our build schedule. We need to build in order to accommodate our growing population. Does that make sense?
Nick: Absolutely it does.
Alex: And in general, I would say that also applies to Fort Collins or really anywhere because what you’re going to notice is, you know if you look at the statistics year after year new home starts, meaning breaking ground on new construction, year over year over year is down for single family homes and up for attached dwellings like condos and townhomes.
Nick: which I think is part of the issue. Since you joined the market, how have you seen change or shift in the five years he said you’ve been in the business?
Alex: That’s a great question, so most recently it’s been really traumatic, but let’s go back to when I started in 2018, so it was definitely a super hot sellers market, but what happened in 2020 when Covid ran its course was completely unprecedented so we agents didn’t know what was gonna happen. You know there was a lot of chicken Little “the sky is falling” talk where we all thought we were going to be out of business and what not. But what happened is the market took off in a way that we could not have foreseen. And you know I got busier than I’ve ever been.
Nick: I mean yea clearly, selling 45 to 50 homes a year, that’s impressive.
Alex: Thank you, and it’s all because yeah the market was hot, but as an organization we also have incredible systems and tools to help as many people as possible. Have you touched base with any other agents?
Nick: Well I’m definitely planning on interviewing at least three for the final paper, but so far you’re the first to get back to me, I’ll probably reach out to a few others after this interview.
Alex: Is the finished product something you’d be able to share?
Nick: Yea absolutely, and please send me any extra information you may like me to include about you. I do have one more question, I wanted to see if you thought the market may shift from a sellers market anytime in the next few years?
Alex: So we actually just came off of a few months where it wasn’t exactly a buyers market, but because the interest rates went so much higher so quickly, it went from approximately 3% to 7% overnight. And it was so drastic that so many buyers got scared out of the market and so demand dropped off causing transactions to drop off, but inventory is still drastically low right? And so there was a few months window and buyers had more opportunity to negotiate, and I was able to help people get deals that they wouldn’t have been able to get a year ago, but that window is closing as we approach the spring things are starting to heat up again, and I’m starting to encounter these multiple offer situations where my buyers are competing for properties again. So I don’t see a shift to a buyers market inside the next five years. I think right now is going to be to buy a home for the next five years.
Nick: That’s very helpful thank you, and thanks again for taking the time out of your day to meet with me and answer if you’ve my questions.
Alex: Excellent, I hope this has been helpful for you
Nick: It absolutely has, thank you so much!
With the conclusion of this interview I have gathered information on the current, recent past, and probable future of the Northern Colorado real estate market. I also learned a little bit of how the city of Fort Collins is reacting to the increasing population, and the growing construction of attached dwellings over single family homes. I will continue conducting research with other sources to obtain more information or possibly different perspectives on the future state of the market.
