As market forces shift in the Denver housing realm, the question on everyone’s mind is: Are we in a buyer’s or seller’s market?
The answer, according to Denver Metro Realtor’s Association’s (DMAR) July market report, seems to be “yes” to both—for now: Buyers are enjoying more leverage in negotiations than in past years, while savvy sellers are still receiving high prices. In the near future, however, the scale may tip to the buyer’s side, note some experts.
“The real estate scene in Denver hasn’t fully transitioned into a buyer’s market, but it’s shifting in that directions as indicated by how many more concessions metro-area sellers are willing to grant now compared to the recent past,” reports Westword.
Regarding those concessions, the magazine quotes one real estate broker who observes that “houses on busy streets or with strange layouts or poor locations are sitting for a while now. And we’re seeing price reductions amplified when agents aren’t pricing properties correctly. When flippers price their properties themselves, you’ll often see them go too high, and as a result, you’ll see them sitting for much longer and prices eventually coming down by $30,000, $40,000, $50,000.”
Buyers are also requesting—and receiving—significant repairs to homes, such as fixes to roof or foundation issues. “Or they might ask for a home warranty to cover a lot of little things,” notes Westword.
Nonetheless, sellers have advantages, as well. Inventory in July dropped 6.19% from June. And while average sold prices were .21% lower than June, they were still 4.27% higher than last year, at $498,960.
“Some areas of town are still experiencing price growth,” notes DMAR, “but not as much as last year.” The association reports that 5.60% of Denver-metro zip codes had a year-over-year median price increase of 10% or greater, down from 40% in 2018.
On another note, CBS4 reports that if you’re looking for stability when buying a home, Colorado is a great choice. Financial company Smart Asset ranks Denver-Aurora-Lakewood the 8th most stable real estate market in the country, after analyzing 25 years of data that looked at two factors: home growth and the likelihood that a home’s value would decline by 5% or more over a 10-year span. Fort Collins ranked No. 4 and Boulder came in No. 1.
“According to our data,” notes the report of the Denver area, “the average home here has grown 279% in value over the 25 years from 1994 through 2018. That’s the third-highest rate in our top 10, as well as the third-highest rate out of all 358 metro areas in the entire study.”
Texas also did well, with Midland, Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, and Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land ranking in the top ten.