The 11-county metro area was on fire in 2020 despite the pandemic. Year-overyear, the Denver real estate market saw a nearly two percent drop in new listings and a seven percent increase in sales. Almost 63,000 homes were sold last year, a nearly seven percent increase from 2019, according to the latest Market Trends Report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors (DMAR).
March was the only blip on last year’s radar. When the pandemic hit, listings were pulled off the market at an unprecedented rate, but by April, prices were holding steady and houses were selling faster than they had the year before. May saw an increase of 56 percent more new listings compared to April—17 percent lower than a year earlier, but still impressive. By summer, sales were skyrocketing along with prices, with average home price in the metro area hitting an all-time high of $625,100 in July.
The white-hot Front Range market in 2020 can be traced to a variety of factors. Historically low interest rates and low inventory play a role—at year end, there were just 2,541 active listings in the metro area, spurring single-family home prices to close the year at $618,895, a $90,000 increase from December 2019. Also, remote employment during the pandemic has freed many information workers to relocate to Colorado, boosting demand and contributing to the average annual influx of 70,000 to 80,000 new residents each year, 91 percent of whom land on the Front Range.