October Market Report - Metro Denver

Hi there, Zach Florence here with Florence Realty Co. bringing you this month’s market update. I’m going to break this down into two categories: bad news and good news. 

Bad news #1: There’s a recent survey that came out which states 80% of Americans believe that now is a bad time to buy. Buyer optimism has never been lower -this is actually a new record according to the survey. This is national data, not Denver data. #2: Interest rates have had another rapid increase as they’ve increased over a half a percentage point since the beginning of September. That’s obviously created some bad headlines and contributed to the new record-low buyer optimism our country is experiencing. #3: Denver Metro has now hit 2.4 months of housing supply, the highest it’s been in a while. For most of my career, it’s been below 2 months of housing supply, and even below 2 weeks of housing of supply. Months of inventory is a metric I’m keeping a close eye on.

Let’s talk about some good news! #1: Denver only has 2.4 months of housing supply! That’s still technically a seller’s market. That’s the metric we use to rate the ratio of supply and demand, so there is still not enough supply to meet current demand. If that number hits 4, 5, or especially 6 months of housing supply, then we’d have a balanced market and perhaps a buyer’s market. #2: Interest rates as of October 10th came down statistically about .19%! It’s good to see that kind of recovery. That’s just as of now -most of the headlines that we read track interest rates on a weekly average. Tomorrow they could go back up. However, that is big movement toward recovery on interest rates! #3: Many of my smart buyers know that we are cyclically in our price decline season from now until the end of the year. That fact, combined with higher interest rates, has resulted in more price reductions! We’re seeing some deals to be had and I expect that to be the case from now until February or March, depending on when our selling season kicks off when we’ll see more appreciation. So, in good news, there are going to be some deals to be had for you buyers! Sellers, have good expectations!