Sales in Denver continue to slow

“Listings are still getting offers but far fewer than we saw this past summer”

Both home sales and active listings in metro Denver dropped in October, with the housing market running much cooler than this time last year, according to the Denver Metro Real Estate Market Trends Report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.

Sales of single-family homes and condos fell 8.3% to 5,169 between September and October and they are down by a fifth from October 2020. But that slower pace of closings didn’t translate into a higher supply of unsold homes. The inventory of 3,376 homes and condos at the end of last month represents a 15% decline from September and a 30% decline from October 2020.

It is common for the number of active residential listings in metro Denver to drop between September and October as activity slows. Since 1985, that monthly drop has averaged around 5.8%. October’s inventory decline of 15% marks the second largest on record after a 16.8% decrease in October 2017, according to the report.

“If you are a picky buyer, you must be patient as there are clearly not a lot of available properties,” said Andrew Abrams, chairman of the DMAR Market Trends Committee, in comments in the report. The tight supply isn’t providing sellers the advantages it did earlier in the year. While there is still a premium paid over the list price of 101.8%, Abrams said extreme bidding wars are less common.

“Listings are still getting offers but far fewer than we saw this past summer,” said Jenny Usaj, co-owner of Usaj Realty and a member of the DMAR Market Trends Committee, which compiles the report.

“A few of our recent listings received only two or three offers. As such, the cooler fall season makes it a great time to buy since and — from what we have seen — there appears to be less buyer competition.”

The median price of a singlefamily home sold in metro Denver last month was $585,000, an increase of 1.6% from September and 13.6% from October 2020. The median price of a condo or townhome sold was $375,000, down 1.2% from September and up 11.7% from a year earlier. The report noted that the heaviest volume of sales last month was in the $500,000 to $750,000 range, with the highest inventory of available homes in the $1 millionplus range or luxury category.