Although the real estate market in Colorado has been on a tear for years, recent signs suggest that a cool-off may finally be on the way — including the increasing number of homes in various parts of the state that are underwater.
According to the folks at Attom Data, who've just released a new report about home equity during the third quarter of 2018, a home is considered to be seriously underwater when the combined balance of loans is at least 25 percent higher than the property's estimated market value.
In other words, the owners of the house owe a quarter more than it's worth.
Attom Data's figures show that more than 4.9 million properties in the United States qualified as seriously underwater during 2018's third quarter, representing 8.8 percent of all American properties with a mortgage. That's actually down from 9.3 percent in the second quarter of 2018 but slightly up from 8.7 percent in the third quarter of last year.
Included in the report is a heat map that allows users to discover the number and percentage of underwater properties in communities by zip code — and compared to many places in other parts of the country, including the so-called Rust Belt, Colorado's in comparatively good shape, as graphically depicted in a screen capture below. The five zip codes with the highest share of seriously underwater property range from 59.2 percent in one section of Cleveland, Ohio, to 71 percent in a portion of Trenton, New Jersey — but the largest percentage in Colorado is the 81611 zip in Aspen, at 19.4 percent.
However, the latter number is up considerably from this time last year, when 15.4 percent of properties in Aspen's 81611 zip code were seriously underwater, a previous Attom Data analysis shows. The same is true for the Colorado zip with the second-highest percentage, 81657 in Vail, which has gone from 11.3 percent of homes seriously underwater to 15 percent over the past twelve months.
At present, the problem is considerably less severe in Denver and along the Eastern Slope. But if the market's winds have finally shifted, that could change. And thousands of Colorado homes are seriously underwater right now.
Continue to count down thirty Colorado zip codes, ranked from those with the lowest to the highest percentages of seriously underwater properties. Note that "MSA" stands for "Metropolitan Statistical Area."
City: Denver
MSA: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Zip Code: 80227
Number Seriously Underwater: 187
Pct Seriously Underwater: 2.2%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 8,692
City: Longmont
MSA: Boulder
Zip Code: 80501
Number Seriously Underwater: 205
Pct Seriously Underwater: 2.4%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 8,411
City: Brighton
MSA: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Zip Code: 80601
Number Seriously Underwater: 212
Pct Seriously Underwater: 2.5%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 8,426
City: Parker
MSA: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Zip Code: 80134
Number Seriously Underwater: 531
Pct Seriously Underwater: 2.6%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 20,135
City: Peyton
MSA: Colorado Springs
Zip Code: 80831
Number Seriously Underwater: 218
Pct Seriously Underwater: 2.6%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 8,375
City: Breckenridge
MSA: Breckenridge
Zip Code: 80424
Number Seriously Underwater: 147
Pct Seriously Underwater: 2.7%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 5,347
City: Aurora
MSA: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Zip Code: 80016
Number Seriously Underwater: 454
Pct Seriously Underwater: 2.9%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 15,406
City: Arvada
MSA: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Zip Code: 80002
Number Seriously Underwater: 120
Pct Seriously Underwater: 2.9%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 4,101
City: Golden
MSA: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Zip Code: 80401
Number Seriously Underwater: 294
Pct Seriously Underwater: 3.0%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 9,917
City: Evergreen
MSA: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Zip Code: 80439
Number Seriously Underwater: 285
Pct Seriously Underwater: 3.4%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 8,302
City: Aurora
MSA: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Zip Code: 80010
Number Seriously Underwater: 239
Pct Seriously Underwater: 3.9%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 6,187
City: Aurora
MSA: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Zip Code: 80011
Number Seriously Underwater: 336
Pct Seriously Underwater: 4.0%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 8,445
City: Monument
MSA: Colorado Springs
Zip Code: 80132
Number Seriously Underwater: 300
Pct Seriously Underwater: 4.0%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 7,436
City: Castle Rock
MSA: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Zip Code: 80104
Number Seriously Underwater: 330
Pct Seriously Underwater: 4.1%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 7,980
City: Denver
MSA: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Zip Code: 80202
Number Seriously Underwater: 138
Pct Seriously Underwater: 4.3%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 3,177
City: Steamboat Springs
MSA: Steamboat Springs
Zip Code: 80487
Number Seriously Underwater: 261
Pct Seriously Underwater: 4.8%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 5,475
City: Boulder
MSA: Boulder
Zip Code: 80302
Number Seriously Underwater: 251
Pct Seriously Underwater: 5.4%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 4,622
City: Fort Morgan
MSA: Fort Morgan
Zip Code: 80701
Number Seriously Underwater: 153
Pct Seriously Underwater: 5.5%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 2,791
City: Denver
MSA: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Zip Code: 80203
Number Seriously Underwater: 230
Pct Seriously Underwater: 5.7%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 4,026
City: Montrose
MSA: Montrose
Zip Code: 81401
Number Seriously Underwater: 239
Pct Seriously Underwater: 5.8%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 4,102
City: Grand Junction
MSA: Grand Junction
Zip Code: 81501
Number Seriously Underwater: 300
Pct Seriously Underwater: 6.2%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 4,843
City: Glenwood Springs
MSA: Glenwood Springs
Zip Code: 81601
Number Seriously Underwater: 203
Pct Seriously Underwater: 6.4%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 3,191
City: Englewood
MSA: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Zip Code: 80113
Number Seriously Underwater: 371
Pct Seriously Underwater: 7.1%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 5,242
City: Estes Park
MSA: Fort Collins
Zip Code: 80517
Number Seriously Underwater: 288
Pct Seriously Underwater: 7.2%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 3,975
City: Sterling
MSA: Sterling
Zip Code: 80751
Number Seriously Underwater: 206
Pct Seriously Underwater: 7.8%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 2,643
City: Durango
MSA: Durango
Zip Code: 81301
Number Seriously Underwater: 808
Pct Seriously Underwater: 9.5%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 8,522
City: Avon
MSA: Edwards
Zip Code: 81620
Number Seriously Underwater: 289
Pct Seriously Underwater: 10.7%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 2,689
City: Pueblo
MSA: Pueblo
Zip Code: 81001
Number Seriously Underwater: 544
Pct Seriously Underwater: 11.1%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 4,905
City: Vail
MSA: Edwards
Zip Code: 81657
Number Seriously Underwater: 491
Pct Seriously Underwater: 15.0%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 3,266
City: Aspen
MSA: Glenwood Springs
Zip Code: 81611
Number Seriously Underwater: 656
Pct Seriously Underwater: 19.4%
Q3 2018 Total with Loans: 3,373