Months of Inventory is Closest Thing to a 'Crystal Ball': Denver Still Seller's Market

This awesome graph from 1985-2019 shows the key indicator of supply and demand for the strength or weakness of a market: months of inventory. This is as close as we can get to a "crystal ball." Months of inventory is the rate at which the demand for homes will diminish the available supply inventory. So the lower the months of inventory, the hotter the market, which would be a Seller's market. A market with high months of inventory would indicate a Buyer's market, because supply is high and demand is low. 

During the Recession of 2008, months of inventory were over 6 months, which is a Buyer's market. Today the months of inventory is just below 2 months, which still indicates a strong Seller's market. 

Now different price points have different months of inventory, so right now, homes above 3,100sf (mostly considered luxury homes) have 4.5 months of inventory, so is much easier for buyers to have a bit of negotiation power. Smaller homes under 1800sf have more demand and thus more competition. 

When months of inventory rise to 4-5 months, then we will begin to see a buyer's market again. But that takes time and does not happen over-night (see the graph below!). It's great when we can take the guessing game out of it and use key indicators to make decisions!