As the Denver metro area began emerging from lockdown in May, the local housing market sprang back to life, logging double-digit increases in listings.

According to the monthly report of the Denver Metro Realtors Association (DMAR), new residential listings jumped 55.44% in May over April. Meanwhile, despite a 19.7% drop in homes sold in May from April (and a 48.86% drop from May of 2019), homes under contract increased 114.86% percent from the previous month.

“While the infection rate curve flattened, the number of pending offers skyrocketed,” stated Jill Schafer, chair of the DMAR Market Trends Committee.

Schafer, according to the DMAR report, attributed “some of the surge in new listings…to sellers putting their homes back on the market after withdrawing them when showings were halted back in March.”

As for the jump in homes under contract,  many buyers were most likely seeking to reap the rewards of current, record-low interest rates. No doubt still others simply needed to address their individual housing situations, regardless of the turmoil of news events swirling around us.

“We are living in an unprecedented time, with safer-at-home orders to curtail the spread of the coronavirus and a nighttime curfew to diminish protests downtown,” said Schafer. “It might seem like searching for a new home isn’t important, but no matter what else is going on in our world, there are still people who need to sell and people who need to buy.”

While the market has yet to fully recover from the blows the virus inflicted, “it appears we are well on our way,” Schafer said.

In other news from the May DMAR market report:

• The record low number of listings (5,463) for Denver was logged in 2016.
• In the last 9 weeks, 454 fewer properties closed per week than last year. “That COVID-19-affected trend should start decreasing after the first week of June, as many of the properties that went under contract during the strictest showing restrictions will have closed.”
• 5280 magazine ranked South Park Hill at the top of its list of the 25 best neighborhoods in the city. Others in the top five were: Washington Park, Congress Park, West Highland and Cherry Creek.
• Colorado Springs and Pueblo appeared on Realtor.com’s “Hottest Real Estate Market” list in April. Rankings are based on the number of buyers clicking on home listings in any given area, as well as where homes sold the fastest.
• The financial website GOBankingRates ranked Colorado fifth in a study of the best states to turn a profit by flipping house. The site notes, according to DMAR, that “Colorado flippers can expect it will take an average of 176 days to flip a property with an average profit of $74,000 and a 155.6% return on investment.”