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Finally'it's spring-time in the Rockies'when the daffodils and irises bloom and the trees begin to bud & everything looks right with the world. The holidays are behind us. If there are kids to consider, families begin the home-buying process now so they can finish out the school year at one place and make a fresh start in the fall. Some buyers use their income tax refunds toward the down payment on a house, which generally means they start house-hunting after April 15th. Everything just looks and feels better! For all these reasons and more, spring (and early summer) has always been the peak of the residential real estate market ' I enthusiastically refer to spring as "rush-hour" for real estate!

We remember all too well what the market looked like in the spring of 2000, where house hunters felt like just that - hunters, in search of an elusive prey. Stories abounded of bidding wars. Houses sold the day they were listed for more than the asking price (sometimes for a lot more)! Real estate brokers told sellers not to bother spending money fixing up their homes to attract buyers - it just wasn't necessary. Buyers were told not to even think of making a contingency offer.

What a difference a year makes.

If the past is any indicator, we'll see the same kind of sales this year. Only this year, it's the buyers who may have the bargaining power. With the softening economy, home sellers may not be able to hold out for the red-hot prices they were demanding - and getting - during the past two years. Buyers should also see sellers putting more money and elbow grease into fixing up a home before a sale.

Plus, buyers should have the luxury of time. Time to do a thorough job of researching the market and the individual properties they're considering, says Doug Perry, first vice president, consumer markets division, Countrywide Home Loans, Calabasas, California. "As a buyer, the slower pace is better," he says. "In a fast-paced seller's market, you barely have time to check out the house." Buyers may also be able to put a contingency offer on a house, with the contract based on the sale of their own homes.

This year, as we enter the busiest home-buying season of the year, house hunters are hoping to experience something that the Denver real estate market hasn't seen in several years: a buyer's market! While our local market still looks strong in the long term, it seems to be cool in the short term. The jury may still be out in Denver; however, many experts feel that we are fast moving toward a full-fledged national buyer's market. "After eight years of being in the cellar of the ship, buyers are in the captain's seat," says Brad Inman, CEO of HomeGain.com, a Net-based real estate services company. "In addition to having low interest rates, they can be far more patient, diligent, have more inventory to look at, ask the seller to do more and command a good deal. That's the big market picture that's unfolding."

Even today (as I am writing this article), the Federal Reserve unexpectedly cut a key interest rate by one-half percentage point in an effort to stave off recession. It marks the fourth cut this year. The Fed cited a number of reasons for its action, including sluggish business investment, eroding consumer confidence, economic turmoil overseas and a slide in the stock market. The Fed went on to state that this climate 'threatens to keep the pace of economic activity unacceptably weak.' In the good news category, lower interest rates generally create positive economic activity by inducing consumer spending. Unfortunately, these rate changes usually take six to nine months to work completely through the economy.

So, what will this year's spring real estate market look like? Will it be a 'seller's market' or are we headed for a 'buyer's market'? No one knows for sure.

* * * Kelli Lanphere - Selling Denver's Top Neighborhoods Since 1984 * * *

Denver 2001 - "Headed For A Buyer's Market" ?