Realtors monthly report says inventory needed

The Denver metro area ranked fifth among home buyer’s markets in Colorado for 2023, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors February market trends report.

The residential real estate market needs more inventory, according to the report. Bidding wars are being reported again which will benefit sellers, according to DMAR, and there is a push from buyers right now to get under contract before the “spring rush” comes to avoid competition.

For both single family homes and attached homes (such as condos or townhomes), active listings reached 4,120, which is down by 13.39% to the prior month but up by 247.97% yearover-year, according to data from the report. Closed homes are down 29.23% from the previous month, only reaching 2,041.

The average closing price was $626,311, down slightly from last month by 1.49% but up 2.83% from last year. Days spent on MLS averaged 46, a 6.98% increase from last month and a 130% increase from this time last year, the report shows.

“Buyers are still in the market and they have wrapped their heads around higher interest rates, factored in rate buydowns into their purchase costs and are simply taking their time to find the right home,” Libby Levinson-Katz, chair of the DMAR Market Trends Committee and a Realtor, said in a news release.

Levinson-Katz recommended comparing 2023 to 2019 as the market begins to stabilize to remove abnormal data caused by the pandemic.

“If we look further back, active listings at month end are only down 29.94 percent compared to 2019 and the new listing number of 2,858 is a 40.84 percent decrease from 2019 and also the lowest we’ve seen in the last five years,” Levinson-Katz said in a news release.

Although buyer’s affordability has been impacted by higher interest rates, Denver’s prices have remained stable with a “sweet spot” in the $500,000 to $749,999 price range, according to DMAR.

The luxury market, which are properties sold for $1 million or more, had a 109.52% increase in inventory in December, equal to 308 new homes. Luxury homes that went under contract increased by 58.47%, but are still at low inventory compared to this time last year, down by 6.38%, according to the report.

“This time last year, a luxury condo went under contract in a median of three days,” said Colleen Covell, a DMAR Market Trends Committee member. “Today, that condo was on the market for two months, or 61 days representing the largest increase in yearover-year days in MLS for any segment of the market.”

The most expensive home sold in the Denver metro in January was at 2821 E. Cedar Ave., #13, in the Cherry Creek neighborhood for $4,250,000. The most expensive sale overall in January was a 10.681-acre ranch in Elbert County which sold for $6,447,500. In the same month, 34 homes closed at or above $2 million.