After years of sellers holding all the cards when it comes to Denver’s housing market, will buyers finally have an ace up their sleeves in the coming months?

Like most good gamblers, experts are hedging their bets.

The market will most likely slow, they say, but still remain relatively strong.

To the buyer’s advantage, experts note that inventory in the metro area has ticked upward, if still tight—which should allow for more choice as well as a softening of prices. While prices are still on the rise, they are increasing at a much slower pace than previously. “The median list price for a starter home in metro Denver was…up 9.1% year-over-year in the fourth quarter [of 2018],” notes the Denver Post. “A year ago, the rate of increase was running around 12.8%…”

In short, “buyers will like the market in 2019 better (than 2018),” Jill Schafer, chairperson of the Denver Metro Association of Realtors told the Denver Business Journal.  “It won’t be as frenzied.”

There’s no need for sellers to panic, however. While inventory has loosened up slightly, it is still tight relative to demand. In a Zillow and Pulsenomics LLC survey of 100 real estate experts, the majority of these experts predicted a strong Denver market in 2019, according to the Denver Post. They cited “Denver as the housing market most likely to outperform the U.S. average.”

The influx of people seeking to live in Colorado is adding to the market’s strength. Since 2010, notes a recent Post article, Colorado’s population has grown 13.2%, more than twice the rate of the U.S. population as a whole.

Sellers who have grown accustomed to the frenzied market of previous years may have to make mental adjustments, however, given the slowdown.  “Sellers are going to need to start with their agent earlier, to make sure they get their house in the best shape, DMAR’s Schafer told the Denver Business Journal. The right listing price will be key in making a sale.

Overall, though, the market should hold positives for both buyers and sellers. “I think we’ll see more normalization of the market,” notes Schafer, “a little more balance between buyer and seller.”

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