Home prices fall in Boulder, Denver and Douglas counties. Is it a blip, or a trend?

Kiss those years of double-digit annual home price gains goodbye. Depreciation has made a comeback in Boulder, Denver and Douglas counties, foreshadowing more widespread declines in the months ahead, according to a report Tuesday from the Colorado Association of REALTORS®.

“We are seeing a ton more properties come on the market, but not an increase in the number of sales,” said Matthew Leprino, a Denver-area REALTOR®. He said it is the first time Denver County has seen a decline in its year-over-year home price numbers in several years.

“The median price for a Denver single-family home is now equal to that of March 2017 — $425,000,” he said.

“That one is a bit of a puzzle to me, why it has gone down so substantially. There is such a cooling right now in condos,” Leprino said.

In Boulder County, the median price of a single-family home sold dropped 2.7 percent — from $550,000 a year ago to $535,000 last month. For condos, it is down 8.7 percent, from $399,950 to $365,000.

“The writing is kind of on the wall. We should have had a more robust January than we did,” said Kelly Moye, a REALTOR® who specializes in the Boulder and Broomfield areas.

Agents had hoped that more abundant listings and lower mortgage rates, which have moved from 5 percent late last year to 4.5 percent currently, would lure more buyers off of the sidelines. But now that prices are starting to fall, some buyers may wait for a better bargain or more choices down the road.

Moye said that is what she is facing now. She has gone in circles with a half-dozen buyers the past three weeks. The urgency of the past few years to act is fading.

“They keep asking questions. I am watching their hesitation to jump in,” Moye said. “If they feel like the market is slowing, they want to wait and see if it is going to get even slower.”

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