Denver Real Estate: Active Inventory up Sharply in March

Inventory up 81% from February, up 10% Year-over-year

Every month I track about 30 local housing markets in the US, and I usually post several markets at a time. But this is worth noting.

Today, the Denver Metro Association of Realtors® (DMAR) has released their data for March, and it appears to show a sea change in active inventory.

From the DMAR: DMAR Real Estate Market Trends Report

With a large increase in month-end active and new listings hitting the market, a slight seasonal shift will positively impact buyers who have started to feel fatigue in the residential market. At the same time, current homeowners continue their unprecedented growth in equity.

With a historically high average sales price of $705,812 and increased interest rates, many buyers who saw their potential monthly payments drastically increase received a sign of reprieve. Month-end active inventory went up 81.16 percent from February to March. The additional 995 new listings on the market at the end of the month also served to slightly aid the balance of supply and demand. While the percentage increase is substantially higher, having such low initial numbers yield a higher percent change. Along with the 43.57 percent increase in new listings, this will serve to help balance the accelerated price appreciation the market has recently seen. 

“Earlier in the year, buyers offered six figures above the asking price while competing with dozens of offers,” commented Andrew Abrams, Chair of the DMAR Market Trends Committee and Metro Denver Realtor®. “With the recently increased inventory, it is more common to compete with just a few offers. Although competition has loosened, the residential real estate market has always been slow to react to change. Even with only a few competitive offers, it’s become standard for buyers to come in very aggressively on offers, making the other offers start at an elevated price and terms. With record-high sales prices, interest rates increasing north of 4.5 percent and an average close-price-to-list-price ratio of 106.46 percent, the monthly mortgage of a traditional buyer has never been higher.”

emphasis added

DMAR reports total residential active inventory (detached and attached) was 2,221 at the end of March, up 81.2% from 1,226 at the end of February, and up 9.7% year-over-year from 1,921 in March 2021.

IMPORTANT: This is still low. Usually, in Denver, active inventory peaks in the summer at between 6,000 and 7,000 units.

New listings at 6,020, were up 43.6% from 4,193 in February, and up 5.5% from 5,706 in March 2021.

Closed sales were at 4,440, down 15.7% from 5,268 in March 2021.

I’ll have data on many more markets soon.