Single-family home sales declined by a fifth and condo and townhome sales were down by 23% in Colorado last year, while price increases softened and the inventory of properties available for sale surged, according to a monthly update from the Colorado Association of Realtors.
The number of single-family home sales in Colorado fell from 97,864 in 2021 to 78,091 in 2022, a decline of 20.2%, as the weight of higher interest rates took their toll on affordability The number of condos and townhomes sold last year fell 23.3% to 24,732. Comparing December to December, both home and condo sales were down by about 42%, a sign that downward momentum in sales was intensifying as the year came to a close.
“To say this was a strange year for housing would be the largest understatement I could say about housing. What started out as another year of record-breaking price increases and buyers getting slaughtered, ended as a year where sellers saw values flip, buyers began getting concessions, price drops and double the inventory to choose from,” said Colorado Springs-area Realtor Patrick Muldoon in comments accompanying the report.
Of the state’s 64 counties, only three — Hinsdale, Costilla and Alamosa — saw an increase in single-family home sales in December compared to a year earlier; four saw no change. Among counties with five or more sales last month, volume declines ranged from 16.7% in Grand County to 85% in Pitkin County. The sales decline in metro Denver for single-family homes was 18.5%, below the statewide decline.
Although sales were down overall, the median sales price rose 11.1% on the year to $568,601 for single-family homes and 11.5% to $420,000 for condos and townhomes. But those gains largely reflect the momentum from big increases that came early in the year. By December, the pace of annual appreciation was down to 0.6% for single-family homes, essentially flat. Condo prices were still showing strength with a 7.8% annual gain in December.
Among counties with five or more sales last month, median price gains were holding up the best in Routt, Prowers, La Plata, Logan and Chaffee counties. Costilla, Rio Grande, Conejos, Montezuma and Saguache counties were the counties with the biggest home price declines.
A lot more homes were available for sale at the end of last month, 11,162, than in the prior December — 6,559. That 70.2% increase surpassed the 54.3% gain in condo inventory, which went from 1,968 to 3,036. That said, the inventory available is very tight for a state with 5.8 million residents.
Among the state’s most populated counties, the biggest percentage gains in inventory came in Arapahoe, Broomfield, El Paso, Adams and Boulder counties. Moffat, Rio Blanco, Montezuma, Lincoln and Rio Grande counties saw their inventory of listings shrink in December.
Homes also took longer to sell, although the shift statewide wasn’t as noticeable as it was in Denver. Listings spent a median of 29 days statewide in 2021 to go under contract and 32 days in 2022. In metro Denver, the median days on market went from 16 to 21 over the same period.
About 57.5% of single-family homes sold in Colorado last year were sold in metro Denver. That is up from a 56.5% share in 2021.
