Median sales prices remained flat for the month at $585,000. I’m not sure who is paying asking price; every buyer that closed for us was under asking price. The number that I am most excited to see is that active listings were down 1.93% month over month. Historical average decrease in active listings from September to October is 6.97%, so it is a very positive sign that supply is decreasing.

I’ve mentioned before that the real estate market in Denver is very seasonal. We see all of our appreciation in the first half of the year, and then small amounts of depreciation/prices remain flat for the second half of the year. This is only possible because of the supply decreases that we normally see in the last few months of each year. If supply doesn’t decrease, our inventory count at the beginning of the year would be too high, and we would not see appreciation through the first half of next year. Overall, this would set us up for seeing depreciation for the year. It’s good to see that we are still trending normally at this time of the year.

The market will remain slow for the rest of the year and then pick up in January. One big opportunity out there is for anyone looking to both buy and sell. Even if you can’t qualify for the mortgage on both houses, there are programs that will allow you to buy before you sell. Now is an awesome time to take advantage of those. We can negotiate on the purchase price of your new home before the end of the year, and then capitalize on the appreciation at the turn of the year when selling your old home. A double whammy with building equity!