In June 2021, the report shows that what goes down must come up. Overall, month-end active inventory increased 50.46 percent compared to May 2021, which is the highest percentage of month-over-month increase in DMAR records. The number of new listings was up 23.89 percent month-over-month. Likewise, the number of closed properties increased 9.29 percent. More houses hit the market in June and therefore more people had the opportunity to buy, which is reflected in the month of inventory increasing to 0.50. While historically this still remains incredibly low, it does show a slight shift from the previous month which was 0.39.

“Big percentage changes happen when the market starts with the low inventory that Denver has recently seen,” said Andrew Abrams, Chair of the DMAR Market Trends Committee and Metro Denver REALTOR®. “For the first time in what feels like a long time, buyers have to compete with less competition, and therefore, the extreme bidding wars have drastically decreased. Sellers are now adjusting their listing strategy to what the comps suggest. However, while inventory did drastically increase from the previous month, we are still at less than one-third of the total inventory compared to 2019 at this time."

Overall, the theme of buyer fatigue, holiday travels and an overall decrease in buyer demand has only started to be reflected in July’s market trends report. Whenever there is a shift, whether it is seasonal or unprecedented circumstances, adjustments are made slowly. Sellers have been using comps from the peak of the frenzied seller’s market and potentially listing too high. While buyers may feel the exhaustion, the opportunity to get a house under contract at list price is beginning to grow more realistic.

Our monthly report also includes statistics and analyses in its supplemental “Luxury Market Report” (properties sold for $1 million or greater), “Signature Market Report” (properties sold between $750,000 and $999,999), “Premier Market Report” (properties sold between $500,000 and $749,999), and “Classic Market” (properties sold between $300,000 and $499,999). 

In June 2021, homebuyers of attached and detached homes in the Luxury Market had more choices in June, with new listings up 20.42 percent from May. However, even with more options, sellers in this market barely felt the seasonal slowdown, with pending sales down only 1.51 percent month-over-month. Pending year-to-date sales were up 88.04 percent and closed sales were up 138.20 percent.

June also reported sales in the detached luxury market that increased 24.20 percent from May to June and were up 132.28 percent year-to-date. On average, people buying luxury homes paid 104.74 percent of the list price in June, up 5.26 percent year-to-date. On the other hand, appearing to pull through the COVID-19 slump, the attached home market’s number of closed sales is up 306.25 percent year-over-year while closed sales are up 193.94 percent year-to-date. 

“Over the past year, I’ve had buyers ask me if they bumped up their price range, would there be less competition?” said Jill Schafer, DMAR Market Trends Committee member and metro Denver REALTOR®. “Unfortunately, going up in price doesn’t reduce the number of people battling over the good listings. For the first time, the months of inventory of detached homes priced over $1 million dropped below one month. While these trends can appear to shift quickly since they are based on smaller number of properties, it’s still an extreme seller’s market.”  

The DMAR Market Trends Committee releases reports monthly, highlighting important trends and market activity emerging across the Denver metropolitan area. Reports include data for Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Gilpin, Jefferson and Park counties. Data for the report was sourced from REcolorado® (July 5, 2021) and interpreted by DMAR.