Metro Denver Housing Market Ends the Year With Meager Supply

Though housing demand remains high in metro Denver at the end of 2021, new listings dropped to the lowest count since 2016 with just 1,477 homes and condos available for sale compared to 2,541 at the end of 2020 and 5,037 at the close of 2019. The median price of a single-family home in metro Denver rose 19.3% year-over-year to a staggering $599,990 in December 2021, and the possibility for higher mortgage rates could limit affordability even further.

Though the Denver market is already undersupplied, thousands of people displaced by the Marshall fire in Boulder County could seek out replacement homes in their neighboring city, further boosting demand and putting pressure on regional builders, according to the Denver Post.

As the clock ticked away on low mortgage rates, desperate homebuyers in metro Denver just couldn’t find enough properties to purchase as 2021 came to a close — and the extreme seller’s market could get worse before it gets better.

Metro Denver, a region with 1.4 million households, only had 1,477 homes and condos available for sale at the end of the year, compared to 2,541 at the end of 2020 and 5,037 at the end of 2019, according to latest Market Trends Report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.

Going back to 1985, the metro area has averaged 12,652 homes for sale at the end of December. Buyers only had a twelfth of that long-term average available to them last month and 34.3% fewer homes than were available at the end of November.

Read more