Denver Home Sales Drop 30% In A Year
The Denver housing market has some positives in May. There are more new listings available than in April, giving more choices to buyers. However, the housing market still has a negative vibe according to the Market Trends Report by the Denver Metro Association of Realtors, released on Saturday.
Sales dropped by 30% last year. It went from $4.18 trillion in May 2022 to $2.91 trillion last month. That's probably why.
In May, there were 5,180 new listings, up 8.9% from April. However, it's still 23.9% lower than last year's same month when the extreme seller's market was ending.
The report says that in the past 10 years, inventory at this time of year is usually around 7,000. In May 2019, it was at its highest with 8,796.
Libby Levinson-Katz, a Realtor and DMAR Chair, thinks that spring was unsuccessful in starting and this has affected the real estate market in Denver. She believes that the market's natural flow is not quite right during the beginning of summer. Because there is not enough selection to choose from, buyers are tired of waiting for their ideal home or a good bargain deal.
Good news! The "active listings at month's end" rose to 5,228 in May. This is 13.2% higher than April and 43.2% higher than last year's May. It means fewer listings are getting sold quickly.
Report shows more people want to buy homes than there are homes available in metro Denver.
In May, people bought 4,167 homes. This is less than last year by 28.7%, but more than April by 6.7%. The average price of homes rose 2.7% to $697,534, and the median price rose 2.6% to $595,000. However, these prices were lower than in 2022 by 2.3% and 3.3%.
Colleen Covell, who is a member of the Trends Committee and works as a realtor, thinks it's normal that the housing market is slower recently. This is because the economy has not been stable due to many problems like high interest rates, banks failing, high inflation, and issues with the crypto market and debt ceiling. When the economy is uncertain, people tend to spend less money and wait for things to improve. However, Covell believes that the comparison between this month and past months shows that buyers and sellers who are looking to spend more than $1 million may be interested in buying or selling property again.
The market above $1 million got more supply. In May, 785 new listings appeared. This was 19.3% more than in April. There were also more pending sales, which went up by 6.93% from the previous month. The report says that closed sales went up by 12.84%. Sales volume also increased by 13.2%.
Homes are selling faster in the market. In May, it took only 22 days to sell a home compared to 28 days in April. A year ago, homes sold even faster, only taking 9 days. But, prices are not rising as much as they did last year. The ratio of closed-price-to-list-price went from 105.3% to 100.5% in May.
Buyers are taking their time to find the perfect house, as per Levinson-Katz. Sellers are becoming more practical by lowering their prices. Lenders predict a decline in interest rates later in the year. We wish for a prolonged spring/summer period in autumn.
The Market Trends Report talks about the region with 11 counties around Denver. The counties are Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Gilpin, Jefferson, and Park.
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