If you have been watching the Boulder/Denver real estate market this year you may already know that 2020 was a record-breaking year for our area. Historic highs for the number sold homes and total sales volume, price increases, low inventory and days on market… clearly not even a global pandemic and partial shut-down of our real estate market could do anything to slow the momentum that’s been building for the last 5 or more years.
Home Sales
In December 2020, buyers closed on 419 homes in the final month of the year in Boulder County and 1,214 in Denver County, the highest amounts recorded in any December according to the latest reports from the areas’ metro Realtor associations. This followed prior record-setting months in October and November 2020. This was a 6% increase for Boulder County, and a 12.3% increase for Denver County compared to the same month in 2019.
Indeed, more homes traded hands in the Boulder/Denver metro in 2020 overall than ever before. Throughout the 11-county area considered “Denver Metro”, buyers purchased 62,985 homes throughout the year, 6.95% more than the previous year, which includes a 7.07% increase in sold homes in Boulder County, and a 6.94% increase in Denver County.
Inventory
Blistering home sales led to the first time in Boulder/Denver history that total inventory (including both detached homes and attached, such as condos) fell below 3,000 with only 2,541 homes remaining on the market at the end of the year. On a more local level that means that at year end there was less than one month of inventory in both Boulder and Denver counties.
That dynamic creates pressure for buyers to act quicker than we are all accustomed to. Days to offer vary widely by county, city and neighborhood, but overall days to offer decreased to 34 days in Boulder County and 32 days in Denver County. Currently, there is less than 5 weeks of inventory in Boulder County and 3 weeks of inventory in Denver County.
What this inventory story means is that people looking to move to the Boulder/Denver area that intend to purchase a home will likely need more than one house hunting trip. Once here, they will have to act swiftly- and it could likely take more than 1, 2, or more failed offers to get over the learning curve of how to be successful in this challenging market. As a back-up prospective newcomers may want to arrange for temporary housing, or perhaps even go into a 6-12 month rental, while they figure things out.
Prices
The average closed price of a home in the Denver metro area in November was $547,094, a year-over-year increase of 13% and 2% less than last month.
At year end median and average home prices were as follows:
What’s Happening??
Here are just a couple of thoughts…
Migration to Colorado’s Front Range is a thing and people are moving here! Two areas on Colorado’s Front Range appear on the recent United Van Lines 2020 Migration study Top 25 inbound metro areas:
A recent study by Lending Tree indicates that San Jose, CA, Boston and Denver are the top three metro areas where millennials make up the largest share of purchase requests. In San Jose, 61.79% of purchase requests came from millennials. In Boston and Denver, the numbers are 59.09% and 59.07%, respectively.
Additionally, we know that millennials also currently represent the largest segment of the U.S. workforce. Last month Niche.com ranked Boulder #43 and Denver #11 on list of Best Cities for Young Professionals in America.
The pandemic is bringing out the best and worst of things in many aspects of modern life. Fortunately, Colorado’s entire Front Range area is proving its viability as an economic, professional and lifestyle powerhouse. Among other things, a combination of “recession-proof” government and university jobs (we have lots of government agencies, especially in Boulder and many area colleges and universities) contributes to a stable job market, a positive employment outlook, a strong local economy, and as a result VERY long-term housing stability. And hey, the views aren’t bad either!