Digging Deeper: Year-to-Date Zip Code Report
The DMAR Market Trends Committee examined the year-over-year changes in average close price, median close price, number of closed transactions and days in MLS by zip code.
Key Points
- The zip code of 80230 (Lowry) posted a whopping 79 percent year-over-year increase in median close price in the first quarter. However, examine 80230 a little deeper and you will find that this zip code has relatively fewer sales, which can cause bigger swings when the mix changes. Simply, last year’s mix favored lower-priced properties over higher-priced homes and this year that mix has flipped. But this does not mean that homes in this area have increased by 79 percent.
- The downtown zip codes of 80211, 80202 and 80218 saw good news for sellers as these areas are now seeing price increases compared to last year’s COVID-19 influenced trends of price decreases.
- 81 of the 90 metro area zip codes experienced median price growth. This continues to demonstrate robust growth in most of the metropolitan areas.
- 55 of 90 zip codes experienced double-digit median price gains from 2020 to 2021.
- 20 of 90 zip codes experienced increases of 20 percent or greater.
- Through the first quarter, 80130 and 80126 (Highlands Ranch) saw a dramatic decrease in marketing time as days in MLS dropped by 84 percent and 82.4 percent, respectively.
- When you examine all the zip codes in the aggregate, you see an increase in closings of 5.7 percent. While that number is strong, only 66.7 percent of those zip codes closed more transactions in 2021 than in 2020. That means 33.3 percent closed less. 80216 (Globeville and Swansea) posted a large increase in closings of 113.6 percent. Again, the devil is in the detail. 80216 generally closes fewer homes—then factor increased sales from a newer development will create big increases or decreases.
- Arguably, we are in the best seller’s market ever. With that said, a rising tide does not always lift all houses, as 10 percent of the metro area experienced a drop in median price. Seven of the nine zip codes that recorded a decrease in median close price were west of I-25.
