Home sales dropped dramatically in the Denver-metro area in June from a year ago, a sign, according to some experts, that the market is headed toward more balance.
“With growing inventory and activity slowing, it looks as if we are heading toward a normalizing market,” wrote Chair of the Denver Metro Association of Realtors (DMAR) Trends Committee Libby Levinson-Katz in her monthly report. “This is great news for buyers who have a bit more control in this market. While sellers are less excited, it’s important to counsel sellers that it may take a bit more time for their homes to sell.”
New listings for residential properties dropped 27.22% in June 2023 from June 2022, according to DMAR’s monthly study of market trends. Closed sales also dropped significantly – 24.91% — last month from June 2022.
While average prices for single-family homes mostly remained steady, at $713,674 (.34% lower than last year), homes took much longer to sell. They stayed on the Multiple Listing Service for an average of 23 days in June, compared to 11 days in June of last year – a 109.09% increase in time on the market.
Levinson-Katz attributes some of the slowdown to high mortgage rates that have made homes less affordable. “There are many would-be buyers out there who will be ready to jump in once rates start to decline.” Meanwhile, many potential sellers are staying put, unwilling to trade a low mortgage on their existing home for a higher mortgage on a new one.
Bidding wars are down, Levinson-Katz adds, and most homes undergo “one or two” price reductions before selling.
The result is a calmer market that is allowing buyers to bide their time before jumping at any particular listing. In fact, some are being downright picky. Levinson-Katz notes that she listed a home with “a new furnace and A/C, a new water heater, updated electrical and plumbing and newer windows and solar panels that are owned outright.” Buyers, however, “couldn’t get past the fact that the kitchen needed some updates.”
In short, ““Sellers are learning patience as buyers set the market, and at the moment, they aren’t rushing into any decisions,” wrote Levinson-Katz.
“If you don’t have to sell and you’re a buyer right now,” Matt LePrino, spokesperson for the Colorado Association of Realtors, told Denver 7, “you get to enjoy a much more peaceful and enjoyable process right now.”