In a landmark for the Denver real estate industry, the median price for a single-family Denver home has now reached $500,000. The price is the highest ever average price for the Denver market according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors (DMAR.)
“The prices are being driven by the lack of inventory, so you know we have more buyers in the market then we have houses,” said Athena Wilson-Flierl, broker with The Peak Properties Group.
The Voice of Real Estate – Denver co-authored the report with DMAR. While the asking price for an average home will give any prospective buyer chills, there does look to be some good news in the report regarding inventory. There are 5.56% more active listings for the residential market month-over-month with a 5.31% increase from the inventory during the same period last year, according to the report.
The same report saw an additional 4,638 listings in February of 2018, which was an increase of 10.88% from January of 2018. While there is a small increase in inventory, buyers, sellers, and brokers alike face a tough market and stiff competition. Recently a typical Denver family home listed at $500,000 was shown 100 times over three days. Most listings are being snapped up by cash offers before buyers who want to live in the homes can get their literal foot in the door. The competition continues even in what most real estate professionals see as the slow season. Real estate professionals believe the buying craze is a double-whammy of a population increase and buyers looking to take advantage of lower bowering rates before their expected growth.
The high prices are to be expected in a booming market, but the lower inventory is what’s currently slowing prospective home buyers down. “You can look at a house that was sold last month in that neighborhood; a new listing comes and boom, and it’s already $10,000, $5,000 more, and then we have people overbidding, paying over appraisal, so it’s just increasing the prices even more,” said broker Wilson-Flier.
Several recent reports see a housing market that’s high on price and low on inventory, but forecasts have both of those cooling slightly. Until there are real slowdowns on the housing market, most prospective buyers can expect bidding wars for the time being.