Denver Home Prices Increase By Over 4%

Here are the stats for the month of July for the 7-county metro area courtesy of SMDRA.

  • Buyers closed on 5,314 properties last month an increase of 4.1% from last July.
  • Sellers listed for sale 6,031 new properties for sale last month, a small 2% increase from last July. But, all-of this increase was with attached homes.
  • Buyers placed 5,504 properties under contract in July, an increase of 10.4% from last July.
  • We ended July with 8,239 properties for sale.
  • This puts months of inventory at 1.55 months.
  • The average sales price last month for all properties was $487,988, a 3.9% increase from last July.
  • The average sales price for attached homes was $357,369, an increase of 4% year over year.
  • The average sales price for detached homes was $540,367, an increase of 3.9% from last July.
  • The median sales price rose 4.6% year over year for all properties to a new median price of $428,750.
  • The median sales price for attached homes was $310k an increase of 5.1% from last July.
  • The median sales price for detached homes was $464,900, an increase of 4% from last July.
  • The sales to list price ratio was 99.4%, down from 100.1% last July.
  • Average CDOM last month was 32 days, up from 29 days the last 2 July’s.
  • The median CDOM last month was 11 days, up from 8 days last July.

Month to Month Comparisons–

  • Month over month sales increased by 1.6%.
  • Under contracts dropped by 7.4% from June to July.
  • Inventory levels increased by just 1.3% in July.
  • Average home prices (both types) dropped by 1.53% from June.
  • Median home prices (both types) INCREASED BY 0.9% though.
  • Average CDOM increased by 1 day in July.
  • Median CDOM increased by 2 days from June.

My Observations—

  • The number of new listings in July has been incredibly stable since 2017 and these numbers are down from both 2015 and 2016.
  • Buyer demand as measured by under contracts has been incredibly stable for the last 4 months with under contracts ranging from 5504 to 5673 from April to July.
  • Last year under contracts began a sizable drop in June and July as interest rates started to rise last year.
  • This July’s under contracts was the most we have seen in the last 5 years!
  • Buyer demand is very strong as witnessed to by under contracts.
  • Last year sales from June to July dropped by 8.6% and this year sales increased by 1.6%.
  • And sales dropped the last 4 years from June to July by these percentages—0.76%, 6.5%, 10.4%, and 8.6%.
  • This year was the first time in 5 years we saw an increase in closings from June to July!
  • It was very good to see median prices rise more than average prices as that tells me it was the lower half of the market by price that drove prices up.
  • The number of sales and prices will rise more substantially if more homeowners with homes < $600k list their homes for sale.
  • As interest rates drop our real estate market is gaining strength especially for homes priced under $600k.
  • I am seeing and hearing of more contingent contracts being accepted which tells me that there are more homeowners looking to move up or down and are listing their homes for sale earlier and taking on less financial stress this year.
  • Due to lower mortgages I fully expect buyer demand will increase by both traditional homebuyers and with real estate investors as the cost of money drops. Thus, we may see more price appreciation soon and a return to bidding wars. So, buy your new home before the RUSH.