Seasonal cooling in metro Denver's real estate market, but prices are still up

The housing market in metro Denver slowed down a bit in August, as it typically does as summer winds down. 

But the average price of a home still increased 11 percent over the same month last year. The average price of a home in the metro area, including both detached single-family houses and attached homes such as condominiums and townhomes, increased to $363,625 in August, with 5,154 homes sold in the month, a decrease of 6 percent from the number of homes sold in August 2014.

Time-on-market also dropped year-over-year to 21 days on average, a decrease of 28 percent from a year ago.

But, as is typical at the end of summer, month-over-month numbers showed a slowing in the market between July and August, with a 1 percent decline in the average home price. The number of active listings on the market in August was 9,144, a 2 percent increase over July, but a 4 percent decreased from August 2014.

"The Denver area saw a strong summer selling season, thanks to low interest rates, increasing employment and confident consumers," said Kirby Slunaker, president and CEO of REcolorado. "The slight slowing of the housing market, coupled with moderating prices and an increase in new listings that came on the market in August, will offer buyers more choices as we head into fall."

Earlier this week, the most recent report from Irvine, California-based real estate analytics company CoreLogic showed that metro Denver increased by 12 percent year-over-year in July on its Home Price Appreciation Index, while Colorado's prices appreciated by 10.4 percent in the same period.

Nationally, the average rate of home-price appreciation was 6.9 percent in July, according to CoreLogic.

Molly Armbrister

Denver Business Journal