Metro Denver Sees Record-Breaking Home Sales: Report

The coronavirus pandemic is not stopping people from buying homes in Denver's metro area, according to a new report.

July saw an all-time high for property sales in the region, according to the August 2020 Denver Metro Real Estate Market Trends Report. Nearly 7 percent more properties were sold in July compared to the previous record in June 2017.

Jill Schafer, chair of the Denver Metro Association of Realtors Market Trends Committee, said even real estate experts were surprised by the spike.

“We predicted the record home sales, but I don’t know anyone who predicted prices would jump up so much in one month,” Schafer said in a statement.

The report includes data for Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Gilpin, Jefferson and Park counties.

Pent-up demand from the COVID-19 home-showing shutdown and the continued lack of choices forced homebuyers to bid against each other, the report shows. Many sellers collected multiple offers at or above asking prices. The competition caused the single-family home price average to rise up to a record $601,863, which is 7.68 percent higher than June and 9.92 percent higher than July 2019.

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The lack of housing inventory puts the advantage in the sellers’ hands in all price ranges except for condos priced above $1 million, Schafer said.

The number of pending home sales in metro Denver in July was down slightly from June’s record, but still 27.07 percent higher than July 2019, the report shows.

“This should translate into another big closing month in August,” Schafer said.

In July, nationwide homeownership jumped to a nearly 12-year high and refinance activity soared to 122 percent year-over-year, the report shows.

The real estate spike occurred despite the economy shrinking by 9.5 percent in the second quarter of the year from the previous quarter, and a record 70-year drop in the gross domestic product.

>> Read the full August 2020 Denver Metro Real Estate Market Trends Report here.