AURORA | As summer temperatures rise around the Denver metroplex, local real estate agents are watching the housing market cool off a bit. At least from where it was a year ago.
The Colorado Association of Realtors’ most recent market trend report found that active listings for single-family homes and condos in the Denver-metro region rose about 44% in a month. For some places, shopping for a home is remarkably different experience from last summer.
In some Aurora neighborhoods, there were 50% more listings on the market in June than there there were a year ago, and in Centennial, inventory increased by 148%, according to the association.
“The numbers reflect what Realtors are seeing in Adams and Arapahoe County where home sales have slowed, there is more inventory, fewer, if any bidding wars, and generally pricing is not exceeding list price,” said local agent Sunny Banka. “It is clear that sellers are realizing now might be the highest price they will get for their real estate in the near future and home prices are seeing some adjustments as the interest rate increase. The price you may have received in March, isn’t likely to be the price you would get today.”
Still, prices are up from where they were a year ago. In Aurora’s 80016 zip code, the median price is up about 7.6%.
“All of this said, good homes, in good condition, priced right are still seeing interested buyers,” Banka said. “That crystal ball may be a little cloudy as we see our market move through these changes.”
Inflationary pressures may be driving some cautious attitudes, Douglas County real estate agent Cooper Thayer said.
“Interestingly, while the single-family market in Douglas County continues to slow down, the townhouse/condo market accelerated, likely due to buyers being priced out of single-family homes.,” he said. “Average days on market for townhouse/condo listings was just nine days, significantly lower than the single-family figure at 15 days. Townhouse/condo listings also saw a slight increase in median sales price, rising to $531,000.”
If prices are up, what’s the problem? Just wait until the housing market crashes which will be soon and will happen rapidly.
With inflation, I would surely hope that people would be more cautious with their spending, but that certainly doesn’t appear to be the case across the board, not just with housing. People continue to spend like there’s no tomorrow.