Denver Real Estate in June: Sales Down 1% YoY, Active Inventory Down 51% YoY

Sales slumped in April and May 2020, so the year-over-year (YoY) increases were large for the previous two months. However, in June 2020, sales increased sharply, so sales are now down slightly YoY.

Note: I’m tracking data for many local markets around the U.S. I think it is especially important to watch inventory this year.

From the DMAR: Monthly Indicators, June 2021

Total Residential Units Sold in June 2021 were 6,189, down 0.9% from 6,244 in June 2020.

Active Residential Listings in June 2021 were 3,122, up sharply from 2,075 last month, but down 51.1% from 6,383 in June 2020.

Inventory in Denver had been fairly steady over the last 6 or 7 years, but declined sharply in 2020. Even with the sharp month-to-month increase, this is still the lowest level of inventory for June on record.

From DMAR: DMAR Real Estate Market Trends Report | JUL. ’21

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.”
emphasis added