Metro Denver’s housing market now has more unsold listings available than at any point since 2011, with 13,599 properties looking for a buyer at the end of May, according to a monthly update from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.
That is nearly 50% higher than the 9,159 listings available a year ago and 6.5 times the tight 2,075 listings available in May 2021, which marked a record low for that month.
“Right now, the Denver Metro housing market is a master class in patience,” said Amanda Snitker, chairwoman of the DMAR Market Trends Committee and a local Realtor, in comments accompanying the monthly report. “Whether you’re a buyer waiting for the right home to hit the market or a seller holding out for the best offer, today’s conditions reward those who can pause, plan and stay engaged.”
There were 7,284 new listings in May, a 4.5% increase from a year earlier. That isn’t a big jump, but the backlog has been gradually building. In the first five months, sellers listed 29,881 homes and condos, up 17.5% from the same period in 2024, according to the report.
Although buyers and their agents have long pleaded for more supply. Now that it has arrived, sales are not keeping pace, a reflection of elevated prices and mortgage rates. The 4,036 homes that sold in the metro area last month represent a 2.6% decline from April and a 9.5% decline from May 2024. As long as new listings continue to outpace closings, the inventory will continue to back up, putting pressure on sellers.
“As more homes enter the market and fewer are closing, we’re seeing a build-up of active listings rolling into the next month,” Snitker said. “This is where strategy and staying power come into play. Sellers need to be mindful of how their home is positioned — while buyers may finally have more room to breathe.”
Inventory levels are moving closer to historical averages, which for May is 14,510 listings in DMAR records going back to 1985. Listings are taking a median of 13 days to go under contract, which isn’t as fast as the pace seen a few years ago, but isn’t sluggish either.
When inventories were super-tight in 2021 and early 2022, prices soared. Reversing that logic, will prices start falling now that the market appears to be saturated with a surplus?
It isn’t happening yet, but Seattle-based real estate brokerage firm Redfin argues it is a matter of when, not if. The median price of a detached or stand-alone home sold in May in metro Denver was $665,000, up 0.76% from April and 1.5% over the past year, according to DMAR. For condos and townhomes, the median price was $405,000, up 4.5% from April and down 0.25% from May 2024.
Redfin estimates that sellers nationally were sitting on $698 billion in unsold inventory at the end of April, of which $331 billion had been waiting 60 days or more to reach the closing table. That excess supply is due to there being about 500,000 more home sellers than buyers in the current housing market, with sellers outnumbering buyers by a 42% margin in metro Denver.
“A huge pop of listings hit the market at the start of spring, and there weren’t enough buyers to go around,” said Matt Purdy, a Redfin Premier agent in Denver, in a release. “House hunters are only buying if they absolutely have to, and even serious buyers are backing out of contracts more than they used to. Buyers have a window to get a deal; there’s still a surplus of inventory on the market, with sellers facing reality and willing to negotiate prices down.”