The Denver real estate market never ceases to amaze us, rebounding in swift and dramatic fashion to deliver record breaking numbers even amid a global pandemic that is cripplingother industries. The Denver housing market is providing much needed stability to homeowners during these uncertain and challenging times, due in large part to low interest rates that continue to drive demand for limited housing stock.
Breaking Records
June's pending sales record that we reported on last month has translated to July's all time high of closings for a one month period, by a 7% margin over the previous record in June of 2017. The Denver real estate market also passed a new milestone for the average price of a single family detached home in July, soaring to $601,863. This number represents an 7.68% increase from last month and nearly a 10% increase from July of last year!
Bucking the Trends
Typically we see a lull in activity in the summer months as buyers shift their focus to vacations and outdoor activities while more sellers decide to list their homes, yet this year pending home sales continue to surge, coming in 27% higher than July of 2019, which we predict will mean big numbers for August closings as well. Normally, the Denver real estate market experiences all of it's annual appreciation in the first half of the year and has come to expect a stalling or even slight retraction of appreciation in the latter half of the year. The average month over month change from June to July since 2013 has been a 1% decrease, but this yearJuly closed out nearly 8% higher than June!
It's the Summer for Sellers.AND buyers
How can the market be good for both buyers AND sellers? Sellers definitely have an advantage due to extremely low inventory, but buyers are able capitalize on the shockingly low interest rates that keep on giving. Even though the Denver real estate market is breaking price records, affordability remains high. In fact, it's actually MORE affordable to buy a house this year than it was last year, even with the 10% year over year appreciation that we noted above. Confused as to how that could be? Check out last month's blog on interest rates and affordability!Interest rates have created an ideal scenario for buyers and are predicted to remain low for the rest of the year. The only dilema is that there aren't many homesto choose from with just .7 months of inventory in the metro area as compared to 1.7 months last July. Sellers are experiencing the same issue when searching for their replacement home and many are choosing to stay in place, further exacerbating the inventory crisis.
The Denver real estate market is still buzzing with activity and mortgage purchase applications are the highest they've been in 10 years. Will this mean another record breaking month for August? Or will Covid-19 and the start of the school yearthrow the numbers off? Check back next month when we report on the numbers for August!
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Market Conditions Today v 2008
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