Low Inventory Isn’t a Lack of Sellers, Just More Buyers

In Homeowners by Doug Phelps

While 2020 has seen slightly fewer homes listed for sale than 2019, it is elevated buyer behavior driving inventory levels lower and prices up, not a lack of sellers.

Numbers graph comparing year to date homes sold, homes under contract, and homes listed for sale

69.46% of all homes are selling at or above the final asking price. For the first time in Denver real estate history, there is less than two weeks of inventory of detached single-family homes and just over one-month inventory of attached homes.

Graph showing sold price vs final price by weeks in year 2020.

Only 502 properties hit the market in the Denver Metro last week – this isabout 15% below the last 3-year average (Thanksgiving week) and currently3,164 properties are available for sale. Of those homes for sale, only 1,575 are single family homes.  

Available inventory broken down by price range:

  • There is just under 2-weeks of inventory of homes for sale priced under $500,000
  • Under one month of inventory of homes for sale priced between $500,000 and $1mm
  • 1.2 months of inventory of homes for sale priced between $1mm and $1.25mm
  • 8 months of inventory for homes priced over $3.5mm
Bar graph showing months of inventory by price range.

Highlands Ranch has only 5.4 days of inventory for all price ranges and the city of Northglenn has only 4 days of inventory. The City of Sedalia has the highest months of inventory in the Denver metro market at an average of 3.25 months for all price ranges.

graph showing months of inventory over long term

Conclusions

With 30-year fixed interest rates at 2.5% and households demanding more from their at-home work and school environments, buyer activity continues to be unseasonably strong. Buyer’s should be extremely well prepared with lending and aggressive offers to be successful in this market.

Sellers have been more hesitant to put their home on the market, concerned they will not be able to find a replacement home. Remember that in this market, sellers have tremendous negotiating power. Depending on the situation, a seller can negotiate the continued occupancy of the home they sold after closing. In other cases, a seller can protect themselves by negotiating extra time to find a replacement home. 

Any seller should be aggressive in their expectations of this market place, both for the price they can command for a well prepared home and the terms they can favorably negotiate to protect their capacity to find a replacement home.

Look for our 2020 market recap and 2021 forecast in early January 2021.

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