As home inventory in the Denver-metro market continued to rise in May, active listings hit a six-year high.

According to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors’ (DMAR) monthly market report, the number of homes on the market increased 26% in May over April: 8,891 homes were for sale in the Denver-metro area, representing a 38.12% increase over May of 2018.

Jill Schafer, chair of the DMAR Market Trends Committee, notes that this is the highest end-of-month active listing since November of 2013, when 9,352 homes were on the market. The number remains relatively small, however, she added. “[W]hen put in perspective, it’s very low compared to the high 11 years ago when we had a whopping 26,333 active listing in May.” The number of average active listings for the month (between 1985 and 2018) is 16,007.

Despite the added supply, sellers were still sitting pretty. The average sold price in May rose to $505,827, a 2.07% increase over April. In addition, homes were quickly snapped up, spending an average of 24 days on the market, 14.20% less time than in April.

The report also offered interesting side notes, including:

• U.S. News & World Report recently ranked Denver as the second best city in the country to live. Austin, Texas, ranked first.
• Denver “saw a net influx” of more than 11,000 people between July 1, 2017 and July 2018, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This marked the ninth largest growth in the nation for that time period.
• The magazine 5280 recently ranked Denver neighborhoods according to many criteria, including home appreciation, low crime, favorable school rankings, and less quantifiable factors that improve livability. The top five neighborhoods were Country Club, Belcaro, Washington Park, Virginia Village and University Park.
• While many Coloradans have to take out big mortgages to afford the state’s pricey homes, the good news is that they are paying those mortgages on time. “Only 1.78% of their mortgages were 30 days or more past due in April,” notes the DMAR. It adds that Colorado has had the lowest rate of mortgage delinquencies of any state in the U.S. over the past 26 months.
• Homes are increasing slightly in size, to an average of 2,584 square feet for a single-family home.
• Talk of the U.S. Federal Reserve cutting interest rates to maintain economic growth in the wake of new tariffs has been common of late. DMAR notes that a recent Reuters poll predicts a 40% chance of at least one rate cut by the Reserve by the end of 2020.