Last February, Denver-area homes sat on the market for about two weeks.
This year, homes were more likely to sell in a mere five days.
The latest report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors shows fierce competition between homebuyers heading into peak selling season. Demand is especially high for detached homes, which spent less time waiting for offers than the broader market — just four days.
The median price hit $475,000, up $20,000 from January, according to the report. That’s a jump of about 19 percent from last year.
Low interest rates and a limited supply of homes for sale is fueling a boom in home prices even as the pandemic shuts down huge swaths of the economy.
There were a record-low 2,024 active listings in metro Denver at the end of February, a 58 percent drop from last year, the report found.
By comparison, the average of active listings in February going back more than 30 years is 13,531, according to the realtor association.
The report urges people to prepare for bidding wars, and to think about creative ways to make their offer stand out, such as waiving the right to request repairs after the inspection.
Pressure on buyers could ease over the summer if the vaccine rollout means more sellers are comfortable putting their house on the market, said Andrew Abrams, who chairs the association’s trends committee.
An increase in interest rates could also have an impact, according to Abrams, a realtor with A-Squared Real Estate.
Rising interest rates “may decrease buyer demand, changing the quantity of multi-offer situations,” Abrams wrote in the report.
