Denver June 2007 Home Sales

August 10, 2007

The Denver area's housing market perked up a bit in June, when both the number of sales and the median price increased from May. Despite this normal seasonal uptick, however, sales and prices still fell moderately short of year-ago levels, a real estate information service reported.

A total of 5,773 new and resale homes closed escrow in the Denver-Aurora metro area in June â€” the highest total for any month this year. Sales rose 5.7 percent from 5,463 sales in May but still fell 13 percent short of 6,523 sales in June 2006, according to DataQuick Information Systems of La Jolla, Calif. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records

Continuing an eight-month trend, sales of newly built homes fell the hardest in June, dropping 23.5 percent on a year-over-year basis. Resale houses and resale condos saw annual declines of 11.4 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively.

Total sales in June were the lowest for that month since June 2003, when 5,218 homes sold. In comparison, total sales in April and May this year were at 9-year lows. Sales of all home types combined have fallen on a year-over-year basis for most of the last 19 months.

High-end sales have been relatively strong â€” a trend playing out across much of the West and nation. In June, 19 Denver metro area homes sold with a price or loan of $2 million or more, up 46 percent from 13 such sales in June 2006, according to county property records.

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).

The median price paid in June for all homes combined was $245,000 â€” the second-highest median on record. That was up 3.4 percent from $237,000 in May but down 1.2 percent from a record $248,000 in June 2006.

The median price paid per square foot for resale single-family (detached) houses, another gauge analysts track, shows a similar trend. June's $161 median per square foot declined 2.3 percent compared with a year ago, though was the highest since September 2006. The median per square foot has declined on a year-over-year basis for 11 consecutive months. However, June's 2.3 percent decline was milder than the 4.2 percent drop in May. Declines in prior months ranged from 1.8 percent to 6.4 percent.

Although the Denver area's housing market posted a stronger performance in June than in recent months, analysts will look for a multi-month trend of continued strengthening before proclaiming a definite rebound. Moreover, June's stronger results came at a time when it's normal for a housing market to log peak sales and prices for the year.

In neighboring Boulder County, 749 homes closed escrow in June. That was up nearly 23 percent from 610 in May but down 7 percent from June 2006. The median price paid was $310,000, down from $315,000 in May and down 2.8 percent from $319,000 in June last year. June marked the second consecutive month in which Boulder County's median has fallen on a year-over-year basis. The $310,000 June median was 6 percent lower than the peak $330,000 median in September 2006.

Denver-Aurora, CO MSA*

	# of sales			Median sale price
	June-06	June-07	%Chg	June-06	June-07	%Chg
Resale houses	4,178	3,702	-11.4%	$251,000	$258,000	2.8%
Resale condos	969	932	-3.8%	$153,225	$154,825	1.0%
New homes	1,489	1,139	-23.5%	$309,304	$295,045	-4.6%
All homes	6,636	5,773	-13.0%	$248,000	$245,000	-1.2%