Denver Real Estate Trends – February 2020

The Denver MLS trends data for February 2020 is out. Comparing year over year (February 2019 to February 2020) is better than comparing the previous month, because we have defined seasonality trends.

Here’s the executive summary from Lon Welsh of Your Castle Real Estate:

1. Denver Home Inventory
   • We ended the month with 20% less inventory than we had this time last year
   • We were down 2% from January.  Usually, the inventory builds in February
   • The number of new listings in Feb ’20 was pretty close to Feb ‘19
   • We are very short of inventory, but we’re still better off than 2018 and 2017 (though not by much)
2. Denver Homes Sales Count
   • Down 2% from the year prior
   • This is likely due to lack of inventory, not lack of buyer demand
   • I’m hearing a lot of stories of multiples offers, and I expect that to get worse (from the buyer’s point of view) as the spring season heats up
3. Under Contract (UC) Count
   • Up a lot (16%!) year over year.
   • This suggests that March sales volume could be strong relative to last year.
   • There are more properties UC (5,083) than active (4,835)!
4. Average Price for Denver Homes
   • Up 5% vs. end of Feb 2019
   • No surprise with the lack of inventory
   • We may have strong price growth throughout the spring
5. Marketing time for Denver houses to sell
   • Essentially unchanged overall
   • Down 12% for homes.  Properties are selling fast.
   • Up 21% (just a few days, really) for condos.
     

This was the snowiest February on record which probably slowed down the market!  With the nice(r) weather now in March, we could see more buyer traffic.  The drop in rates will help, too.

The Wall St Journal recently reported that Denver has the 3rd best job market in the US.

Denver Housing Trends February 2020

Below are my three monthly go-to charts and graphs that do a great job of summarizing the Denver market.

Video: Denver Real Estate Trends – February 2020

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