Denver metro home prices continue to climb

PHOTO: For Sale SignThe new S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index shows home prices in metro Denver were up 8.2 percent this May compared to a year before. It was the 29th consecutive month of price gains.

Prices hit another all-time high with a 1.3 percent gain from April to May.

Charles Roberts, owner of Your Castle Real Estate and on the board of the Denver Metro Association of Realtors, says it’s not surprising prices continue to go up. Low interest rates are available, he noted, and there's a tight rental market in metro Denver, and low inventory of homes for sale.

"Denver should have about 17,000 or 18,000 properties on the market, that would be about a six-month normal supply," Roberts said. "We’re still in the 8-9,000 range."

Roberts says the market should stabilize when there are more homes on the market and interest rates go up.

But for now, he says he’s not surprised prices continue to rise as demand outpaces supply in metro Denver.

"You’ve got people who lost their homes five or six years ago. It took them three, four, five years to get their credit back," Roberts said. "A lot of them are coming back and buying now. You have renters, who are getting absolutely priced out of the rental market."

Roberts says the typical yearly increase for home prices is around 6 percent.