October brings Opportunity

Fall is here, and I know that you have also felt the shift this week with cooler days and longer nights. As the cold weather moves in and continues to stay for the next few months, so does the opportunity to take advantage of a slightly cooler real estate market. Seasonal market shifts are common every year, yet were quite muted in 2020. We all know the real estate landscape continues to be on fire.

My projection: The market will continue to be in demand for the remainder of the year, as inventory will remain low. The winter months may bring those dedicated buyers a more competitive edge, as there is often less buyer activity this time of year, and seller’s might be forced into a position to sell. However, they must not expect a major deal or discount, simply a touch more favorable than previous months. Once early spring comes, I expect the flood gates to open with eager buyers wanting to find their next home, and lock in low interest rates while they can.

Buyers: Opportunity is here, jump on it while the others are sleeping.

Sellers: Prepare your home now for a spring sale if you can. Start with exterior improvements, and move inside over the winter months to discard any unwanted items and to make improvements.

Below is the market snapshot from the data that was extracted at the end of August, by Megan Aller at First American Title.

Inventory: The Metro Denver Real Estate Market continues to be drastically undersupplied of homes at the current rate of demand. Currently, we are seeing less than 1 month of inventory, and only 9.1% of the homes required to offset this demand. A market in balance would be closer to a 6 month supply of inventory.

Days On Market: Average Days on Market is the average length of time it takes from the date the property is listed until the property accepts an offer.

Price points:

$1M-$1.5M: 16 days

$800-$1M: 11 days

$600-$800: 10 days

$400-$600: 8 days

Average:10 Days on Market

Close to list price ratio: The percent of asking price received by the seller from the closed transaction.

Average across Denver Metro: 102.9%.

Down from 104.5% in July, and 106% in June.

Some zip codes continue to see 7-10% over asking prices (likely those above in red)

Price reductions: 14.7% of homes on the market reduced their asking price for an average reduction of 5.1%.

Want more market data? Email me at homeontrail@gmail.com, and I’ll send you the slide deck from the past market update class, or any other metric that might interest you.

Thanks for reading & Happy Fall!