Fort Collins, Colorado benefits from having a diversified employment base, proximity to Denver, and desirable relocation characteristics, yet home sales are sluggish, but improving, say local Realtors.

"Fort Collins is the major population center of this area and has been dubbed 'The Choice City,'" say Realtors Dave and Pam Pettigrew. "The area continues to receive national recognition as a wonderful relocation and retirement destination; a place to live, work, raise a family and retire. Comparisons with other areas generally take into account the climate, quality of life, transportation, health care, environment, housing, education, recreation and cultural activities and Fort Collins ranks highly in all of these desirable areas. Others focus on the benefits of our smaller size (120,000), proximity to a large metropolitan area (Denver), Colorado State University, the Poudre School System and a diversified employment base headlined by Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Celestica, Anheuser-Busch, Woodward Govenor, Water-Pik, LSI Logic and many more."

Advise the Pettigrews, "Residential real estate sales in the Fort Collins area improved over last month but still fell 14 percent below June last year. For the year-to-date, closed sales are down 16 percent. This compares to an 11 percent decline in the Loveland area and a 7 percent decrease in Greeley and Weld County. The average selling price in Fort Collins for June was $221,107, an increase of 3.5 percent over last year. For the year to date, the average price is up 3.6 percent in Fort Collins, 1.6 percent in Loveland and 5.2 percent in Weld County. The biggest decrease has been in new construction with sales in the Fort Collins area off 47 percent in June and 43 percent for the year to date. This is in contrast to Loveland which has a small increase in sales of new construction and in Weld County where new construction is down 14 percent. New construction accounts for 38 percent of all sales in Weld County, 30 percent in Loveland and just 20 percent in Fort Collins, and the Fort Collins share of the residential real estate market continues to decline with more and more families moving across I-25 to take advantage of lower prices."

They continue, "The average price of a newly constructed home in Fort Collins is now at $292,500 and in Loveland $251,000 compared to $198,800 in Weld County. The average marketing time is creeping up with 44 percent of the homes sold in June taking more than 90 days on the market compared to 36.5 percent last year and 39 percent last month. As far as inventory is concerned we are in better shape than most market areas with 2,021 homes on the market at the end of June compared to 1,961 last year and 2,002 last month. This is an overall average of 6.6 months supply but It is still dramatically different by price range with a 5.4 month supply of homes priced under $250,000; 9.8 months from $250,000 to $500,000; 19.7 months from $500,000 to $750,000 and about a year for anything priced over $750,000.

"With half of the year behind us, we are facing the first annual decline in total sales volume in the last seventeen years of record growth. We are on a pace for perhaps 4,000 closed sales at an average price of $225,000 for a total Fort Collins market of $900 million compared to last years record of $907 million. For the total market area of Larimer and Weld counties, it looks like a total of 9,500 homes may be sold at an average price of $210,000 for a total market of $2 billion compared last years record of $2.13 billion," say the Pettigrews.

Says Realtor Lou Carsrud, "Located approximately 60 miles north of Denver, and nestled near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Fort Collins' mild climate, excellent health care facilities, recreational opportunities and low crime rate have helped make this one of the fastest growing areas in the state.

Suggests Carsrud, "When placing your home for sale, you want to make it very appealing to buyers. You need to make it marketable. There are 3 factors that determine a marketable listing. They are: Price, Financing, and Time. Price - If your home is priced too high, you must be willing to wait much longer for your home to sell. Either it will take that much longer to find someone to pay more than the home is worth, or the market will eventually catch up to the "asking price" of the home property is in top condition before placing it on the market. After deciding on a price, try the old retail trick - drop the number down a bit. Instead of placing the listing at $140,000, drop it down to $139,990.Financing - You may not realize it, but the financing of your buyer can have a tremendous impact on the success of selling your home. Try to offer very attractive financing options. Consider carrying the financing yourself at a below-market interest rate or preparing your home for government financing. This could open the door for many buyers that otherwise wouldn't even consider your home. Time - if time is important then you must be willing to lower the price."

For buyers, Carsrud advises, "Buying a home can be one of your most significant investments in life. Not only are you choosing your dwelling place, and the place in which you will bring up your family, you are most likely investing a large portion of your assets into this venture. The more prepared you are at the outset, the less overwhelming and chaotic the buying process will be."