Home sales aren’t just slumping big in metro Denver, they are dropping across much of Colorado and in what were some of the hottest markets in the country.
Existing home sales in the United States fell 3.4 percent in August from September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.15 million. Year-over-year, they are down 4.1 percent, according to an update Friday from the National Association of Realtors.
“A decade’s high mortgage rates are preventing consumers from making quick decisions on home purchases,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist, said in the report.
Those national declines look tame compared to what is going on in states like Colorado, Washington and California. Real estate brokerage Redfin, in a different report, estimates that sales in 50 of the 71 largest metros it tracks are now falling.
“Last year and earlier this year, Seattle, San Jose and Denver were the hottest markets with homes selling in days, not weeks. These metros have now been replaced by Grand Rapids (Mich.), Omaha, Neb., and Indianapolis as the fastest markets in the country,” noted Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist.
Last week, the Colorado Association of Realtors reported that the number of single-family home listings sold in Colorado dropped 14.6 percent in September compared to the same month a year earlier. Sales of townhouses and condos dropped 15.2 percent.
Metro Denver definitely skews the numbers. Year-over-year single-family home sales in September were down 15.8 percent in Adams County, 17.8 percent in Arapahoe County, 10.3 percent in Boulder County, 11.9 percent in Denver, 16.4 percent in Douglas County and 25.6 percent in Jefferson County, according to the CAR report.
But the state’s other metro areas weren’t immune. Single-family home sales fell 26.7 percent in Pueblo County, 17.2 percent in El Paso County and 18.8 percent in Mesa County. Fort Collins and Greeley held up better, with a smaller 4.4-percent drop in Larimer County and 7-percent drop in Weld County.
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“Sold listings –- down. New listings –- down. Affordability –- down. Inventory supply –- down. Days on market -– down. Interest rates –- up. Median price –- up and down,” said Chris Hardy, a Fort Collins area Realtor, in comments accompanying last week’s report of his home turf.
Even the mountain counties are getting caught in the down draft. Home sales fell in Summit, Grand, Routt, Gunnison and San Miguel counties. The picture was more mixed picture in Eagle, Pitkin and La Plata counties. Garfield County, home to Glenwood Springs, represented a rare pocket of strength, with home and condo sales both up more than 5 percent last month.
