Housing is hit by major cold front
Analyst: Sales of singlefamily homes over $500K drop 33%
Home sales in the metro Denver area fell precipitously in September, forcing sellers to cut their asking prices and pushing up the inventory of properties available for sale at an unprecedented rate, according to a monthly update from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.
“The housing inventory and home price adjustments are normal and expected,” said Steve Danyliw, chairman of the DMAR Market Trends Committee, in the report. “What’s not normal? Sales of singlefamily homes priced over $500,000 dropping 33 percent from August to September. For those sellers, that’s real turbulence.”
Metro Denver’s housing market has shown signs of cooling since early summer. But it practically froze over in September, and that meant sellers faced a bumpy ride, especially owners of more expensive properties.
The number of singlefamily homes sold in September, across all price ranges, dropped 30.5 percent from August and is down 21.4 percent compared with September 2017. Condo sales fell a dramatic 42.9 percent on the month and are down 17.3 percent yearoveryear.
Normally, the inventory of homes available for sale dips slightly in September as sellers focus on other things. But buyers, after years of coping with a lack of affordability, are now pulling back in a big way.
The inventory of homes and condos available for sale at the end of September shot up to 8,807, an increase of 7.04 percent from August and 16.1 percent compared with a year ago.
The median price of singlefamily homes sold in September dropped 3.8 percent from August to $428,000, but remains up 6.1 percent from the same month a year earlier. Condos, which are generally more affordable, continued to show gains. The median condo price rose 1.73 percent to $301,625 last month and is up 12.8 percent on the year.
The luxury end of the market, which was running hot this summer, was especially hard hit. Sales of homes worth $1 million or more fell 44.4 percent between August and September.