The deep freeze that settled over the housing market in October wasn’t limited to metro Denver, according to a monthly update last week from the Colorado Association of Realtors.
Statewide, the number of new listings for single-family homes fell by more than 20% between September and October, which wasn’t quite as severe as the 25% drop experienced in metro Denver. Over the year, new listings are down 21.6% statewide and 22% in metro Denver — comparable when it comes to the pullback in seller activity.
When it comes to single-family home sales, those are down 32.1% on the year in metro Denver, and down 34% statewide. The inventory of listings available in October is about two-thirds higher than it was in October 2021 in metro Denver and 56% higher statewide. The median sales price of a home sold in October is up 4.5% in metro Denver over the year to $595,792. Statewide it is up nearly 5% to $550,000.
Measured against the peak in April, median single-family home prices are down 10% in metro Denver and 9% statewide, which is not good news for anyone who bought in April and put less than 10% down.
Boulder-area Realtor Kelly Moye, in comments accompanying the report, described the market as “stuck” in more ways than one.
“Sellers are stuck in the prices of the past and buyers are stuck with the fear of what the future may hold,” Moye said. “Sellers are learning to price to 2021 numbers and buyers are learning to leverage motivated sellers by requesting concessions to buy down their interest rate. Both seem to be working to keep the market rolling in what typically would be a slow time of year.”
So where is homebuying activity cooling the fastest? Excluding counties that had fewer than four sales last month, the sharpest declines in single-family closings were in Huerfano County, down 76.5%; Gilpin, down 63.6%; and Summit, down 52.9%. Other counties with sales declines worse than the statewide average include Routt, Park, Jefferson, Boulder, Otero, Denver and Douglas.
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“To give an example of how much the interest rates have impacted buying power, if you took out a 30-year-fixed loan for $1 million in January with interest rates at 3%, the monthly mortgage cost alone would be $4,216. Today, if you took that same loan with an interest rate of 7%, the monthly cost would be $6,653. About a 58% increase,” said Dana Cottrell, a Summit County Realtor, in comments accompanying the report.
In Summit County, the average price of a single-family home sold is above $2.1 million.
Sellers were pulling back the most in Moffat County, which saw a two-thirds decline in single-family home listings in October compared to a year earlier. Above-average declines in new listings were also measured in Rio Blanco, Summit, Lincoln, Elbert, Saguache, Pitkin, Clear Creek, Montezuma, Rio Grande and Delta counties.
Homes are now taking 32 days to sell in metro Denver, double the time required last year, while listings statewide now take an average of 42 days to find a buyer, which is a 50% increase over the past year.
