Days Needed To Sell A Home Down 32% From April Of 2019!
As the Denver market begins to emerge from the shelter-in-place status, all indications are that the Denver real estate market is picking up right where it left off prior to the full shut-down phase. The market is shifting forward about 8 weeks and it appears that our spring market will run from mid-May forward into June and July. In most years, the market begins to slow toward the end of May and we move along at a slower pace for the next 6 to 7 months of the year.
Stats from the 100 largest metro areas in the U.S. show new listings are down across the nation compared to April 2019. Denver is down 35%, which is relatively mild compared to several east coast cities where inventory is off as much as 75%. Real Mortgage loan applications have risen dramatically in the past three weeks as buyers begin to come back in the markets following the COVID shut-down that spanned from early March to the end of April. These two items combined together, less homes coming on the market (I suspect that will change over the next 30 days) and more buyers coming back into the market, have created a huge drop in the number of days it takes to sell a home.
Statistics for The Denver Real Estate Market
- 3,600 buyers closed on a home last month, a drop of 26% from last year. The biggest drop was seen in attached homes where the drop in closings was 32%.
- Sellers listed 4,496 new properties for sale in April, down 35% from a year ago.
- The biggest drop in new listings was in detached homes which saw a drop of 36.8%.
- Under contracts totaled 3,074 last month, a drop of 45% from April 2020.
- We ended April with 5,944 properties for sale, down 15.7% from last year.
- This puts months of inventory at 1.65 months across all price ranges
- Average days on market, across all price ranges, dropped from 28 days last April to just 19 days this April – That’s 32%!
Please let us know if you would like similar stats for a specific price range or location – Buyer or Seller report.
What about homes priced over $1M
Jumbo loans have become harder to obtain, with lenders requiring lower debt to income ratios, more liquid assets held by borrowers and higher interest rates. This has slowed the luxury market a little bit and may continue to for a while until requirements on jumbo loans loosen up. However, the $1M+ market is still a solid Seller’s market below $1.5M.
Here are inventory levels at various price ranges. (MOI is Months Of Inventory). Statistics provided by Denver’s MLS.
Note: 6 months of inventory is considered a market in equilibrium. Lower inventory is a Seller’s market and higher inventory is a Buyer’s market.
$1M to $1.2M – 2.8 months of inventory – 310 active homes in the Denver area
$1.2 – $1.5 2.8 MOI 373 Active
$1.5 – $1.7 5.1 MOI 164 Active
$1.7 – $2.0 5.6 MOI 176 Active
$2.0 – $2.5 6.3 MOI 139 Active
$2.5 – $3.0 7.5 MOI 14 Active
If Jumbo Loans continue to be difficult to obtain, we may see some softening in these higher price points. However, it is possible that sellers at these price points will remove their homes from the market or choose not to sell at this time, therefore reducing supply as demand reduces. This would likely keep these price points on solid ground.
Future of The Market
Despite the recent slow down due to COVID, the housing market in Denver, and other major cities across the nation, continues to be robust with the bigger challenge being lack of inventory, rather than falling prices. Denver is ranked 5th in the nation for incoming buyers to the housing market. Over the next 10 years, the population of the Denver metro area will increase by another 700,000 people according to estimates. This can result in some challenges but one thing it does not lend itself to is falling home prices!
Weather your considering selling or purchasing, please let us know if you would like stats for a specific price range or location. Contact Sean and Janet Willcox – Coldwell Banker – 303-903-5255 – willcox2@comcast.net
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