Denver Real Estate Market Report for March 2021

• Denver’s population is continuing to grow: Denver has seen more than 17% population growth since 2010 (DBJ).
• The appreciation and equity growth in Denver is one of the highest in the nation: Homeowners who purchased 10 years ago in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood area gained an average of $325K in home equity gain, putting us at #11 in the nation for wealth accumulation over the past 10 years (Realtor.com).
• Employment continues to grow: Denver has seen more than 25% employment growth since 2010 (DBJ).
• Compared to nationwide statistics, Colorado is more popular as a work from home destination with 46 percent of the population reporting that they telework compared to only 35 percent of adults nationwide.
• It’s the strongest seller’s market we’ve ever seen and we won’t be anything close to a buyer’s market anytime soon: “As interest rates start to trickle up, prices continue to rise, and inventory continues to shrink, other consistent questions become whether the market is in a bubble and if now is a good time to buy? If you use supply and demand as a metric for the ‘bubble’ question, it would be difficult to think that we are in one.” – DMAR

March’s Numbers Over the Years:

	Avg. Days on Market	Avg. Sold Price: Single Family Home	Avg. Sold Price: Condo	# of New Listings	# of Homes Sold	# of Homes Pending	Avg. Sold Price Change YOY
Mar. 2017	39	$468,889	$317,402	6,810	4,347	5,194	+ 8.82 %
Mar. 2018	44	$522,277	$351,044	6,335	4,213	5,674	+ 10.9 %
Mar. 2019	31	$530,897	$360,875	6,197	4,162	5,660	+ 1.79  %
Mar. 2020	29	$567,382	$386,344	6,663	4,296	4,992	+ 7.31 %
Mar. 2021	19	$674,990	$416,775	5,772	4,889	5,799	+ 15.26  %

Source: DMAR

During these unprecedented times, Usaj Realty would love to carefully assist you with finding your next place to call home, or selling your current property. Our acumen, attention to the market and negotiation skills will all go to work in order to advocate for your goals. Email us at info@usajrealtystg.wpenginepowered.com or call 720.398.2999. We measure our success by the happiness of our clients!

 

{{cta(‘ccccf9f5-79a6-4659-95ec-27051dfac745’)}}

Headlines: What’s Happening in Colorado

Average Denver home price hits $674K, up $40K in a month

“Up, up and away — again. According to the just-released April market trends report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors, the average price of a detached home in the Denver area currently sits at $674,990, an increase of more than $40,000 over last month and in excess of $100,000 above the same period a year ago.”

– Westword

Bill aims to give local governments authority to require affordable housing units

“Colorado’s legislature appears poised to pass a bill giving local governments power to require new rental housing developments to provide affordable housing units. If adopted, the bill would reverse a longstanding interpretation of the state’s rent control statute precluding such requirements, which are commonly known as “inclusionary housing ordinances.”

– Denver Business Journal

Denver homes are flying off the market 41% faster than last year

“Homes in the metro often have hundreds of 15-minute viewings and end up with more than 20 offers. That competitiveness triggers bidding wars that result in most buyers paying at least 10-15% over already sky-high asking prices.”

– Axios

Headlines: What’s Happening Nationally

Home listing prices reach all-time highs. But how much higher can they go?

“Nationally, the inventory of homes for sale in March decreased by 52.0% over the past year, a higher rate of decline compared to the 48.6% drop in February. This amounted to 534,000 fewer homes for sale on a typical day in March compared to the previous year. Newly listed homes, while still declining compared to the previous year, improved slightly compared to last month. ”

– Realtor.com

Average home sale price hits all-time record

“The median home sale price increased 16% year-over-year to $331,590 – an all-time high, per a report this week from Redfin. But that’s not stopping buyers from snatching up homes days after they’re listed.

During a four-week period ending March 21 and covering 400 metros, 58% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market. And between March 14 and March 21, 61% of homes sold in that timeframe had been on the market two weeks or less, and 48% had sold in one week or less.

And offers are coming in well-above asking price, too. Nearly 40% of homes sold above their list price – another all-time high – and 15 percentage points higher year-over-year. The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, increased to 100.2%.

This is concerning for experts, though, many of whom believe home prices will remain high even after mortgage rates, inventory, and building material costs recover to pre-pandemic levels. Rates are already above 3% – after falling into the 2% range during the majority of 2020 – but construction companies are still struggling to keep up with insane lumber prices, stifling new builds.”

– Housing Wire

Why are there no houses to buy?

“The real critical issue that has plagued the housing market is supply,” according to CBS News Business Analyst Jill Schlesinger. “Down 30 percent for existing homes. When you have a ton of people coming into the market, and limited supply, numbers are higher. All that limited supply is exacerbated by the fact that some boomers didn’t want to list their homes in the middle of a pandemic and when you look at the price of new homes, that’s also rising. Not just because of the lack of supply, but when you look at the cost of materials, whether its crude oil used in paints, it could be copper used in the lines, all put together, prices are indeed higher and a lot higher for many would be buyers.”

– Denver CBS

A slight drop in mortgage rates didn’t stop the bleeding in refinances

“The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($548,250 or less) did fall slightly to 3.33% from 3.36%, with points decreasing to 0.39 from 0.42 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. The rate, however, had been rising for seven straight weeks and is now significantly higher than at the start of this year.”

– CNBC

Report for March 2021:

Read Denver Metro Association of Realtor’s full report on last month’s Real Estate trends and statistics in Denver here.