Metro Denver home resales slip; prices rise

Move-up buyers, affordability and location are helping to push median figures higher.

By Margaret Jackson
The Denver Post

While home resales in the Denver metro area declined in September compared with a year ago, median sales prices for houses and condos increased, according to data released Wednesday.

A total of 3,846 homes sold in September, down 9.8 percent from September 2008, according to Metrolist data. Meanwhile, median prices for single-family homes rose 4 percent to $225,000, compared with $216,500 a year ago. Condo prices increased 3.6 percent to $145,000, compared with $139,900 in the same month last year.

"With condos, it's affordability and location," said independent real-estate analyst Gary Bauer. "We also have this underlying effort going on called the green movement, and more and more people are looking closer to work or alternative transportation."

An increasing number of move-up buyers in the market has pushed the median prices higher as well, Bauer said. Move-up buyers typically purchase homes in the $150,000-to- $250,000 range, he said.

"The majority of the activity has been in the lower price ranges," Bauer said. "The higher price ranges are stagnant."

The number of homes on the market declined 17.1 percent to 19,834, compared with 23,923 a year ago, a number that's likely to continue falling through the end of the year because of the holidays and the high number of first-time buyers in the market.

"We're seeing a lot of first-time buyers that would like to buy, but there just isn't enough inventory out there for all of them," said Lon Welsh, managing broker of Your Castle Real Estate. "We suspect the lack of really inexpensive homes for sale has changed the sales mix to a higher price point, driving up the average price."

Margaret Jackson: 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com