Denver Metro Real Estate Update

23 Offers.

This last weekend I was out with homebuyer clients, exploring homes in Arvada, Lakewood, Golden, and Littleton. Two of our clients fell in love with some pretty amazing homes over the weekend so we put together a plan to make very competitive offers.

How many offers did each home receive from the market?

The home in Golden received 10 offers.
The other home in Arvada received 13.

Thankfully our clients in Golden were able to secure the home! Although we weren’t selected for the home in Arvada, we did get selected to be the back-up offer which is still a win (1 in 5 chance of the first buyer falling out here locally).

In recent weeks our clients who went under contract in Thornton were competing with one other buyer. Our client who just secured a new build didn’t encounter multiple offers, but the home he originally wanted was scooped up quickly by another buyer.

What’s my take?

The last 3-4 months of 2022 were painful, sure. Buyers retreated from the market (at least it felt that way). Interest rates were on a crazy ramp up and nobody seemed to know where they’d land. Listings on the market suffered in many cases.

Now that we’re in 2023, things are very different from the end of 2022. I thought multiple offers would be a thing of the past with higher interest rates. But supply and demand still rule the day. There’s just so little inventory relative to demand in the Denver metro area. Demand is stronger now. Homebuyers appear to be more comfortable with interest rates even though they’re higher than recent years. Maybe the fact that they’ve stabilized has been helpful psychologically. I will say that offer prices in these multiple offer situations haven’t been as high relatively speaking (percentage-wise) as we might have seen in 2020-2022, so that’s a silver lining.

I will also add that there are still homes that are sitting on the market. I just pulled a list of 885 homes that have been on the market in the Denver metro area for more than 46 days. Opportunities may still exist, so take heart!

The “spring'“ market is actually looking like it has over the last 10 years. I dont expect to see a true drop in home prices right now. Showing traffic is up, pending sales are up, closed sales are up. The best homes listed at appropriate prices are moving quickly.