I beg to differ — I don’t think the Denver market is comparable at all to the coastal markets. The Denver area experienced no bubble or over-heated housing market like the coasts have enjoyed. If Denver is 10% overvalued, it is because there have been a lot of higher priced homes sold in the last three years. It’s not exactly because other segments of the market have been appreciating with gusto. So, I don’t know if “overvalued” is the correct term for what’s happened here.
As Gone to Colorado noted, the Denver area has a lot of government employment (me included!) and this area was hard hit by the internet bust, due to the over emphasis here on tech and financial services employment. Of course, those jobs evaporated very quickly. According to Gov. Owens, we lost 30,000 jobs when that happened, and, with the double whammy of 9/11, we just never recovered. I’ve heard some areas of the country have emerged from recession, but we still haven’t really recovered. As long as those good paying jobs are gone, I don’t see us really making a strong comeback, and our housing woes won’t be going away any time soon.
