Denver January 2008 Home Sales

March 14, 2008

Denver area home sales in January were the slowest for that month in at least a decade. The median sale price slipped back to its lowest level for any month in more than five years, falling 15 percent short of its summer 2006 peak.

A total of 3,243 new and resale homes closed escrow in the Denver-Aurora metro area in January. That was down 19.4 percent from 4,022 in December and down 29.9 percent from 4,624 in January 2007, according to DataQuick Information Systems of La Jolla, Calif. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records

The 667 new homes sold in January marked the lowest monthly new-home total for any month since 1998, when DataQuick's complete home sales statistics begin for the Denver region. Sales of all homes, meaning new and resale combined, in January were the lowest for any January back to at least 1998 and were the lowest for any month since February 2003, when 2,796 homes sold. Last month's sales were about 20 percent lower than the average number sold in January over the past decade.

Sales financed with so-called jumbo mortgages over $417,000 fell 62.2 percent in January, compared with a 32.5 percent annual decline for transactions financed with conforming loans, which don't exceed $417,000. Before the credit crunch hit last August, making jumbo loans pricier and harder to get, about 5 percent of all Denver region sales were financed with jumbo loans, compared with 3.1 percent in January.

The median price paid in January for all homes combined was $210,000. That was down 5 percent from $221,000 in December and down 9.7 percent from 232,500 in January 2007. Last month's median was 15.2 percent lower than the peak $247,569 median of June 2006 and was the lowest for any month since September 2002, when the median was also $210,000.

The median price paid per square foot for resale single-family (detached) houses, another gauge analysts track, fell to $140 in January, down 9.7 percent from a year ago and 16.1 percent below the $166 peak last reached in June 2006. The January median price per square foot was the lowest since August 2000, when it was $138.

DataQuick's statistics for the Denver MSA reflect sales in Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Jefferson and Park counties (see MSA exclusions below). Due to a lag in data availability for Park County, sales there were estimated for December and January.

Denver-Aurora, CO MSA*

	# of Sales			Median Price
	Jan-07	Jan-08	% Chg	Jan-07	Jan-08	% Chg
Resale houses	2,695	2,077	-22.9%	$232,100	$211,000	-9.1%
Resale condos	727	499	-31.4%	$144,150	$130,000	-9.8%
New homes	1,202	667	-44.5%	$300,000	$298,805	-0.4%
All homes	4,624	3,243	-29.9%	$232,500	$210,000	-9.7%