As the peak buying season of 2024 comes to an end for the Denver Metro Area real estate market and we move into the final quarter of the year it’s time to acknowledge trends that will close out 2024 and begin 2025. Inventory has returned to the Denver metro area. There are more homes on the market right now than any time over the past 4 years. We’re almost back to our normal level of available homes for sale which will certainly help buyers find the perfect home. The even better news is that home mortgage interest rates are at a new low! So if you’re looking to buy a new home, this may be the time to do it with high inventory, low interest rates, and a slower buying season. Let’s take a look at the numbers.
Denver Metro Area
The inventory trend has continued since this past May. In September, the Denver Metro Area saw an increase of almost 12% in inventory over last year. The last time we saw this amount of active inventory was in 2019. But unlike then, homes are selling at almost $200,000 higher than five years ago. By the close of September, homes were selling at a median price of $608,750. This is 1.8% lower than last year at this time. But year-to-date, the median sales price is up 1.6%. Families across the metro area were able to take advantage of the lowered interest rates – Down to 6.2%! With rate buydowns and other contract negotiations, we’ve heard of one buyer achieving a low mortgage interest rate of 4.5%, with the plan to refinance in the near future. This is definitely feeling like we’re entering buyers market territory, giving house hunters the opportunity to find and negotiate deals. Homes are sitting on the market an average of 52 days, so sellers are definitely starting to look for the right moment to work with the right prospects.
Boulder County
Interest in Boulder County is definitely returning, but the statistics would not point to that conclusion. Like the previous months, everything is on the negative side of things. We have to take this with a big grain of salt because Boulder County leans into the Luxury Market rather heavily with multi-million dollar homes coming onto the market occasionally. During the pandemic, many of these homes came onto the market, shifting the sales numbers dramatically from month to month. In September, the median sales price of a home in Boulder dropped 6.3% from last year, down to $772,500. This is still considerably higher than the rest of the Denver Metro Area, but nowhere near the peak at the end of 2022. What informs us that interest has returned to the area are the average days on market. This dropped to a mere 38 days, down from almost 20% from last year, and down from nearly 50 days just over the past few months. This could very well be due to the decrease in interest rates.
Longmont
Much of the interest headed to Boulder County has been coming to Longmont. Sales are up this past month, selling 7% more homes than this time last year. The median sales price of homes fell 5.5% from last year, bringing the average to $543,500. In general, though, properties have been holding steady in Longmont for several months now, hovering around the $550,000 mark. Most homes are selling within 50 days, as of September, following the trend for the rest of the Denver Metro Area real estate market.
