Is the Denver Real Estate market a buyer's market or a seller's market?

Is theDenver Real Estate market a buyer's market or a seller's market right now? Ifyou are thinking of buying or selling a home in Denver, then this is a greatquestion to ask before you begin. For the past 8 years, as long as I have beenin the Real Estate, Denver has been a strong buyer's market. But how do we knowwhen it transitions from a buyer's market to a seller's market?

Beforegoing into numbers to answer this question, it is necessary to first understandwhat the difference between a buyer's and seller's market is. In a buyer'smarket, there are more home sellers than there are buyers. When this occurs,there is greater supply than demand and typically the buyer holds thenegotiating power and can expect a great deal. On the flip side, when there aremore buyers than sellers and buyers are competing for houses, it is a seller'smarket and the seller holds the negotiating power.

If I didn'tlook at any data, I would say without a doubt we are in a buyer's market. Most buyerscan still get a great deal on a house and it is very seldom you see buyerscompeting for a home. But I saw some data today that made me wonder if we areturning a corner.

Accordingto Metrolist data, in October, there were a total of 14,156 homes on themarket, down 33% from a year ago. This tells me there are not as many active sellersright now so perhaps leveling the supply and demand equation. If we lookfurther, there were 1,638 homes under contract in October which is a whopping233% INCREASE over this time last year!!!! This tells me that homes are sellingand at a much higher rate than they have been in the past. If 12% of all homeslisted are under contract, and this number continues to grow, the supply inDenver will obviously continue to shrink and in many neighborhoods we could seea transition to a seller's market in no time.

I will haveto keep an eye on this data to see how the trend continues through winter.Regardless, if you are on the fence about buying and wondering if we have hitbottom, I think this is a pretty good sign we have and are headed back up.