Yay! The market statistics are out for the month of April. This is always my favorite blog post of every month, and I wait with baited breath for the Metrolist stats to be put up on their site.
These statistics are based on homes listed for sale in the Denver MLS, and do not reflect private sales, many foreclosures or much new construction.
In April, our inventory remained about equal to what we had on the market in March. Combined single family and condo listings were at 20,628 in March and 20,705 in April.  Sales have dropped from a year ago, but are up from last month.  I showed a house to some clients this past Sunday, and when we called to tell the listing agent we had some interest I found out they already have 3 offers…
The most notable thing I see this month is the average days on the market continues to drop for single family homes. We’re at less than 4 months on the market, average, for most properties. This suggests that properties are selling much faster than they were, and is a sign of a market that is in balance.  Even condominiums, where DOM have risen slightly since last month, are selling in less than 4 months, average.
It looks scary to see that we’ve dropped 17.56% in number of homes under contract, but as a percentage of inventory, we’re actually doing better.  We had 25,030 active properties in April ’08 and 6,093 were under contract.
Our high end of the market is still out of balance. There are $million+ homes selling, but buyers seem reticent to get into the market just yet and sellers are resistant to drop their prices any more. Many sellers in this price point have the financial wherewithal to hold out so we’re at a stalemate.
What does all of this mean for buyers and sellers? Many sellers are getting real with their prices or taking their homes off the market.  I think that the lower price point is the hot spot, but since the average sold price for single family homes is up over 1% that may be a sign that the recovery is gradually trickling up to a slightly higher price point.
Spring is here, buyers need to get off the fence quickly.  The current combination of low rates and low prices can’t last. If the economy at large stabilizes (the DOW was up again today) then rates will begin to creep back up. You’ll stand to lose a lot of buying power that you have right now. With Denver Real Estate sales showing more and more signs of life, we’ll see more than a 1% jump in average sales price.
Real estate is not scary, if you are wise and educate yourself you can make a smart real estate decision.