Kelcey McClung wrote about January 2019 home sales in the Denver Business Journal. She provides evidence that real estate market trends point to a more balanced market resulting in more choices for home buyers in the Denver Metro Area. She also writes that the luxury home market saw a dramatic decrease in the median days on the market.
Denver's January housing market marks 'best time to buy in a long time.'
The number of listings in metro Denver’s January 2019 housing market was up 52 percent compared to January 2018, according to the latest Denver Metro Association of Realtors report.
The total of 5,881 listings was up 5.45 percent from the previous month, but still far below January’s historic average of 13,469.
Jill Schafer, chair of the DMAR market trends committee, said in a press release that buyers should be doing a “happy dance” because they finally have choices.
“Even though the Denver metro area is still a seller’s market in most price ranges, there’s no doubt this is the best time to buy in a long time,” she said.
Homebuyers were putting in more contracts in January than December – up 33.97 percent, which means the metro can expect more home sales in February, according to Schafer.
While inventory is up, prices are still up too, as the average sold price of a home in January was 2.89 percent higher than the average in January 2018, at $461,101.
The metro is continuing to move toward a more balanced market, Schafer said, as single-family homes priced under $1 million are still in short supply, and lower price ranges have less than five months worth of inventory. A market is generally considered balanced when it has five to six months worth of inventory.
The luxury home market is officially a buyer’s market, according to DMAR, as there is currently 7.65 months worth of inventory. January was much slower month for properties priced over $1 million as 93 were sold, compared to 135 in December.
The median days on the market for luxury homes dramatically dropped to 41 in January, which is less than half of the median days seen in January 2018. From 2016 to 2018, days on the market for luxury homes has ranged from 71 to 84 days.
Andrew Abrams, a DMAR market trends committee member, said he does not expect this trend to continue, but it does show that “buyers were quick to make decisions in January.”
“The luxury market was full of conflicting data,” he said. “The average sales price was up, median days on the market down and the overall sold properties and sales volume were down as well.”
-Kelcey McClung - Denver Business Journal
