After Realtors® felt a relative slow down and seasonal return in July and August, September felt back to the normal red-hot speed in today’s housing market. Closed properties were 12.81 percent lower than last month at this time and a notable 19.27 percent lower than last September. With lower inventory and fewer homes, the balance of supply and demand stayed steady, leading to another month of competition for buyers. Months of inventory increased to .76 and while it may not have felt like a huge increase, it gave potential buyers a few more options.
Excluding the $0 to $99,000 homes, the most competitive market ranked in the $300,000 to $399,999 range. This price point had 0.51 months of inventory with a surprising 218 closed properties, showing that one can indeed still find a single-family detached property under $400,000.
The least competitive market was attached properties over $1 million. While there were still 56 attached properties that sold over $1 million, the month-of-inventory for this category was 2.16, more than four times less competitive than the $300,000 to $400,000 and the $400,000 to $500,000 range.
“Even though prices are up over 15.11 percent year-over-year, now is still a great time to buy,” commented Andrew Abrams, Chair of the DMAR Market Trends Committee and Metro Denver Realtor®. “With interest rates low and expected to increase, plus a seasonal increase in inventory, waiting will only cost a potential buyer more money in the future. We continue to see more houses being purchased this year than any of the previous five years and this will likely hold for the remainder of the year.”
Our monthly report also includes statistics and analyses in its supplemental “Luxury Market Report” (properties sold for $1 million or greater), “Signature Market Report” (properties sold between $750,000 and $999,999), “Premier Market Report” (properties sold between $500,000 and $749,999), and “Classic Market” (properties sold between $300,000 and $499,999).
In September, the Luxury Market remained strong with a slight slowdown that saw 501 new listings hit the market, and inventory up 4.81 percent from one month ago and 15.17 percent year-over-year.
While the market had a little boost in inventory, 418 of those new listings went into pending status, down 6.70 percent from one month ago, but up 5.56 percent year-over-year. Buyers still had to move quickly as the average days on market for a residential Luxury home was 21 days, down 12.50 percent from one month ago, and down 58 percent year-over-year. However, sellers didn’t mind the quick move because they received 101.28 percent over list price, down 0.22 percent month-over-month, but up 2.99 percent year-over-year.
“The big question on everyone’s mind is whether or not we will see the housing bubble burst, but the data continues to show that it’s simply not going to,” said Brigette Modglin, DMAR Market Trends Committee member and Metro Denver Realtor®. “In the Luxury Market, we can celebrate and be grateful for a little more inventory coming into the market and buyers having a little more time to make decisions on a home.”
The detached Luxury market saw 445 new listings, with 362 going into pending status and 383 closing in September at 101.54 percent over list price. Meanwhile, the attached Luxury Market saw 56 new listings pop up, 56 head into pending and 56 close. Overall, buyers had a little more negotiating power in the Luxury attached market, with attached homes selling for 99.57 percent to list price and within an average of 25 days.
Thank you to our partners at the Denver Metro Association of Realtors for compiling this information.
