For the first time since December 2019, year-over-year median home prices have decreased in the Denver metro area, dropping by 1.4% from $531,000 to $525,000, according to the latest monthly report from the Colorado Association of Realtors.

After a year of skyrocketing prices, homes across Colorado have also dropped to the same median price as last January to $520,000. The average price for single-family homes has increased by 3.1% around the state, from $645,604 last January to $665,645 this January.

While new homebuyers were willing to offer more than the asking price to purchase homes last year, that’s less of a trend during the first month of the new year. Sellers were getting 101% of the list price for single-family homes in Colorado in January 2022, but that dropped to 97.9% of the listing price last month.

The number of listings in Colorado has gone up by 68.3% compared to last January, from 5,830 listings last year to 9,814 single-family listings during the first month of this year.

New single-family listings dropped from 5,717 during January 2022 to 4,698 listings last month, representing a 17.8% drop in statewide housing inventory.

“The January stats confirm what Realtors have been experiencing for the last few months — a sluggish market, prices decreasing and a change in the way buyers and sellers negotiate a sale,” Boulder-area Realtor Kelly Moye said in the report. “In Boulder County, prices went up throughout the first half of 2022 and then the appreciation was quickly lost due to rising interest rates. That, coupled with a typical seasonal slowdown, held prices to what they were at the end of 2021.”

In January 2022, 4,876 listings sold in Colorado, while only 3,441 single-family homes sold last month, representing a 29.4% drop year over year. Homes are staying on the market much longer than last year, going up from an average of 35 days last January to 60 this January.

Similar to the rest of the state, Denver homes are taking twice as long to sell, with homes in the Denver area lingering on the market for 50 days this January instead of the 22 average days in January 2022. New listings have dropped from 4,300 last January to 3,709 this year.

In Denver County, January saw a seven-year record for the average number of days on the market for a single-family home at 48 days. Last month was only the third time in CAR records that single-family homes stayed on the market above an average of 40 days, according to the report. It’s also a stark contrast to the average of seven days that homes were on the market in April last year.

While Denver’s housing market saw more than 20% year-over-year housing price increases during 2021, that growth has tapered off.

“At just 2.6% higher than January 2022 for a freestanding Denver home, price growth is far more palatable and clearly less panic-inducing for buyers who are now reflecting that in their need to snatch up desirable homes before the next guy does,” Denver-area Realtor Matthew Leprino said in the report.

CAR hires a Minneapolis-based real estate tech company called Showing Time to produce its monthly reports, which use data from Multiple Listings Services.

Denver, Colorado

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