DENVER HOME, CONDO PRICES FELL IN JULY

Median price for single-family homes stays flat for metro area, but dropped in county

The average price of a singlefamily home sold in Denver declined 2.4 percent in July from June, while the average price for condos sold was down 4.6 percent.

Home sales and prices in Denver slipped lower from June to July. But was that just the chain jerking on a roller coaster still headed higher or a housing market cresting its peak and about to send passengers on a wild ride?

“It is typical to have a seasonal slowdown every summer, but this summer has been slower than most and there is some speculation as to whether this is purely seasonal or may indicate a change in our fast-paced market,” Kelly Moye, a Boulder-area Realtor, said in a market update Thursday from the Colorado Association of Realtors.

The median price for single-family homes sold in all of metro Denver stayed flat at $410,000 from June to July, while median condo prices dipped 2.9 percent to $270,000, according to the report.

But in Denver County, the average price of a single-family home sold declined 2.4 percent in July from June to $560,150, while the average price for condos sold was down 4.6 percent, to $409,514.

“That is an enormous drop in the average price for month over month. That is the outlier, something that is not typical,” said Matthew Leprino, a managing broker with Leprino Home in Denver.

The number of single-family home sales also dropped in metro Denver, from 5,128 in June to 4,364 in July, while condo and townhome sales dropped from 1,714 to 1,538. Part of that reflected fewer homes available for sale. There were 36.2 percent fewer singlefamily and 14.9 percent fewer attached homes available for sale at the end of July versus a year earlier.

But Leprino isn’t clutching the lap bar. June is always the strongest month of the year, making it hard for subsequent months to compete. For several years now, the peak selling season has appeared to end earlier. School districts continue to move up their start times, and sellers pull listings off the market to avoid disrupting their families, Le-

prino added.

But off-season months, aside from the holidays, have tended to run stronger, and markets about to roll over tend to show an accumulation of unsold homes, not a declining inventory.

Another influence on average price is the mix of high-end and low-end properties that sell in a given month. Leprino said he is seeing list prices drop on higher-end homes, while affordable properties still sell quickly and with multiple offers.

A condo Leprino listed for a client near Cherry Creek started at $1.06 million, but he dropped it to $999,999 after other properties lowered their list prices. But a home near Olde Town Arvada that listed Wednesday for $348,000 had 11 showings and three offers within 20 hours.

“It is still gangbusters,” Leprino said of the lower-end of the market. “It is still red-hot.”