DMAR Real Estate Market Trends Report | DEC. '19
Fewer choices for homebuyers in Metro Denver this holiday season. Both the number of new listings and homes sold dropped month over month in November.
The number of new listings added to the Denver-area housing inventory in November was down 32.7 percent month over month and 6.48 percent year over year. This reduction contributed to shrinking the number of active listings from 8,557 in October to 6,988 in November, an 18.34 percent drop. For comparison, in the last quarter of 2018 there was a surge in new housing inventory.
“The number of new listings was as scarce as the sweet potato casserole after the first pass around the table at Thanksgiving,” said Jill Schafer, Chair of the DMAR Market Trends Committee and Metro Denver Realtor®. “The market would have gobbled up even more of our excess inventory if we hadn’t also had fewer sales.”
Closed sales were down 22.78 percent month over month, but sales were still up by 2.17 percent year to date compared to 2018. The number of homes that went under contract dropped 10.84 percent month over month which, according to Schafer, indicates the number of homes sold will likely be down next month, too.
“Fewer homes on the market means it’s tougher for homebuyers in an already expensive city to own real estate, especially in the very popular housing segment of homes priced under $400,000,” states Schafer. “Many buyers continue to have to put in multiple offers before landing a home.”
The average days on market and the average sold price both increased in the entire residential market. The average days on market was 35 in November, up just one day from the prior month. Year to date the average days on market was at 31, an increase of 24 percent compared to last year. “This is what both buyers and sellers need to know,” adds Schafer. “While homes may be on the market longer, and the close-to-list-price ratio was down to 98.80 percent month over month and 99.23 percent year to date, this is still not a market for low-ball offers.”
The average home price in November was $490,874, up 1.43 percent month over month and 6.76 percent year over year. Breaking it down further, the average single-family home price was $537,624 and the average condo sold price was $365,856.
Our monthly report also includes statistics and analyses in its supplemental “Luxury Market Report” (properties sold for $1 million or greater), “Signature Market Report” (properties sold between $750,000 and $999,999), “Premier Market Report” (properties sold between $500,000 and $749,999), and “Classic Market” (properties sold between $300,000 and $499,999). In November 2019, 166 homes sold and closed for $1 million or greater – down 15.31 percent from October and up 26.72 percent year over year. The closed dollar volume in the luxury segment year to date was $3.45 billion, up 11.33 percent from last year.
The highest-priced single-family home that sold in November was $7,250,000, representing five bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and 11,860 above ground square feet in Cherry Hills Village. The highest-priced condo sale was $5,359,975 representing three bedrooms, four bathrooms and 3,518 above ground square feet in Denver. The Realtors® representing the buyers and sellers in both transactions are DMAR members.
“The highest priced condo sale in November averaged over $1.5 million per bedroom!” said Andrew Abrams, DMAR Market Trends Committee member and Metro Denver Realtor®. “However, notably, only 15 luxury condos sold which represented less than 10 percent of the total luxury sales last month.”
DMAR finds that, while inventory has decreased from the previous month, the close-price-to-list-price ratio has remained steady from both the previous month and previous year. Out of the 166 luxury properties that sold, a little more than 90 percent of them were single-family homes, which could explain why the months of inventory for single-family properties is at the high end of a balanced market with 5.45 months of inventory. Likewise, months of inventory for condos shows a buyer’s market at seven months. The average months of inventory across all price points is 2.13, showing that “the Luxury Market is on its own island.” The condo market has higher months of inventory compared to single-family properties throughout all price points. Abrams adds, “This shows that, overall, there is more demand than supply in single-family homes relative to condos.”
According to Abrams, considering the boom that metro Denver real estate has experienced in Colorado throughout the last 10 years, the amount of luxury properties sold is not surprising nor is the increase in sales volume. He comments, “I did find it surprising, however, that despite there not being a lot of condo sales last month, year to date, luxury condo sales were up 50 percent from the previous year. This could be due to more condo development.”
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