Active Homes For Sale
Days on Market and Average Home Sale Price
Active Homes For Sale
Number of Active Listings

More Homes For Sale

Across Denver and the Denver Foothills we are finally starting to see more homes for sale than last time this year. Inventory is starting to like the spring selling spree may give buyers more options to find their perfect home. This is great news for everyone. This is a sign of a healthy market. When a real estate market sees buying like we have for the last couple years it is sometimes hard to find true value of home. The more transactions we have that validate sharply rising prices the more we know the market is truly finding value in the homes. It wasn’t just an emotional or knee jerk run up of the housing values. 

More Homes is Good for Everyone

When we see more homes for sale in a given market, and them selling, it shows there is still demand for an area like Evergreen, Golden, Morrison and Denver have seen. When more homes sell it also makes it certain that a good priced home is going to appraise. Appraisals are not really something we had a problem with the last few years but there have been a few homes that have not hit their mark. It proves to lenders that the home they are investing in will most likely hold (or gain) value in the coming years. Let’s face it, lenders are not in the habit of lending money on properties they think are worth less than the sale price.

Is There a Shift in the Buyer/Seller Control?

When you are buying or selling your next home you need to understand who has control of the market. In a perfect world buyers and sellers would always have even ground. In that world both would need to give a little and be able to take a little and both parties would be happy at the closing table. In reality there is rarely a time where both are on equal ground. The only time that happens is when there is indecision in the market. When the market is trying to decide if home values will go up or down. If you would look at a candle chart home prices this indecision would be what stock traders call a hanging Doji. When neither buyer or seller have control. Things are flat. At that time buyers can offer a little lower and usually get the offer accepted and sellers don’t need to fix a laundry list of home inspection items in the fear that if the deal falls it won’t go back under contract. A balanced market is when everyone is happy. 

Days on Market are Still Holding Steady

Average days on market are very important indicator on telling the story of the current market. It is a pretty straight forward indicator. If homes are increasing the amount of days on market it is showing the interest in any given area is starting slow. If homes are flying off the market in 3 days (like they have been in many areas in Denver and the foothills) it is showing a major interest in that area. When home linger for sale for 90 plus days (other than luxury  homes for sale) it is showing a cooling market. Luckily our days on market in our areas are still very acceptable for sellers. The ones that are raising the average are sellers that still think they have control of the market. 

The chart that shows the number of active listings, suggests the sellers might have the control of the market. Well the homes are selling as fast as they are being listed. The last couple weeks we have seen some net positive gains in inventory but nothing huge. This is also a somewhat seasonal trend downward as well. A lot of Realtors in Evergreen and the Denver area like to say we don’t really have seasonal trends but the numbers indicate a different story. Behind the actual data, the stuff they don;t really put into charts, such as multiple offers or crazy seller contingencies. Those of us real estate brokers here on the ground know things are shifting to favor the buyer more. Again it is too early to really say it is buyers market, After all buyers and sellers need to kind of agree that market is shifting. Sellers are really trying to hold onto control. There are still some sellers that believe it is a sellers market. Putting their home on the market way over priced, setting up unreasonable showing windows and not budging off their price on an offer. The market is always a happier place when one side doesn’t have complete control and the ability to take advantage of the other.

The DOM and sale price chart is showing a pretty steady hold on the average sale price in Evergreen, Conifer, Morrison and Golden. The blue bar represent the actual closed price. We have had a few dips under $600K but for the most part staying steady and seem to be holding value. Even through the winter months. We have seen (not shown on the chart) the Denver home values contract for the first time in years last quarter. The green line on the chart represents days on market as an average. You can see it climb pretty steadily from August to January. Not sure the huge dip February there is really no reason for that and as a whole the market did not feel a surge that represents. I think there was not enough data to pull for our partial month to give a data point. Overall the market is still very healthy, homes seem to be holding value. It also looks like we will have another great spring selling spree and more inventory than past years. This is a good thing for everyone. The last few years we have seen buyers just giving up because there has been nothing for them to buy. The more buyers, the more we continue to prove the value of homes are still strong.