latest denver-area housing market stats: median single-family home price reaches $560K
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By James Rodriguez | Published on April 6, 2021
The rise in available for-sale housing that typically accompanies the transition from February to March failed to materialize in the Denver metro this year, as buyer demand continued to outstrip supply, according to the latest monthly report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.
It's a theme that buyers and their real estate agents have come to know well, as low interest rates and a sharp rebound in homebuying activity over the past year have put increasing pressure on the metro's housing inventory, resulting in record-low numbers of available homes in the 11-county Denver metro.
Active residential listings (both attached homes, such as condos, and detached, single-family homes) totaled 1,921 at the end of March, down 5.09% from February and 66.74% from a year prior. The last time there wasn't an increase in active inventory from the end of February to the end of March was in 2014, according to DMAR.
The steep competition for homes has pushed prices higher, accentuating Denver's affordability issues. The median closing price in March reached $500,000, up 12.36% from a year ago. The median closing price for a detached, single-family home was $560,000, a year-over-year increase of 15.46%.
The number of new residential listings in March (5,772) almost exactly matched the number of pending sales at the end of the month (5,799). A total of 4,889 homes traded hands during the month.
Andrew Abrams, chair of the DMAR Market Trends Committee and a Denver Realtor, noted that with interest rates inching up and inventory continuing to shrink, a couple of questions have become common: "Are we in a bubble, and is now a good time to buy?"
"If you use supply and demand as a metric for the 'bubble' question, it would be difficult to think that we are in one," Abrams said in comments accompanying the DMAR report. "In March of 2008, we had 25,516 properties available to sell compared to only 1,921 today. Even if buyer demand starts to decrease as interest rates go up, that doesn't necessarily translate to prices going down. Instead, it could translate to prices going up at a slower pace and a return to normalcy."
For the luxury market, which includes properties sold for $1 million or more, new listings are "barely keeping up with demand," according to Libby Levinson, a broker associate at Kentwood Real Estate - Cherry Creek and a member of the DMAR Market Trends Committee.
March saw 402 new detached listings in the luxury segment, compared to 314 in February. Pending sales reached 399, a 26.27% month-over-month increase.
The 389 closings in the luxury market (both detached and attached) represented a 72.89% increase from a year ago.