The number of metro Denver homes for sale increased 10 percent from June to July, but decreases in the number of new listings and the number sold in July indicate what could be the beginning of a seasonal market plateau.

Those drops in new listings and homes sold were accompanied by decreases in both average and median home prices, according to a report Thursday from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors. DMAR’s residential report includes single-family homes and condos.



New listings and homes sold both dropped 11 percent from June’s report. The average price fell 2 percent to $412,000, and the median came down 3 percent to $354,000.

Single-family home prices had been rising since January. But those increases are pricing more and more people out of the market. (Additionally, rents in the Denver metro area hit an all-time high in the second quarter.)

“It’s an affordability issue,” DMAR Market Trends Committee member Steve Danyliw said of the cost of buying a home. “Prices have gotten so high. Wages aren’t keeping pace with home prices.”

And that’s not just a Denver problem, DMAR Market Trends Committee chairman Anthony Rael said.

“Affordability throughout the country is a major issue right now,” Rael said. “The rest of the country is nipping on the heels of what we’ve been going through.”

While the fundamentals of a balloon bursting aren’t there, Danyliw said, the housing market will have to start slowing down.

“We’re going to hit that line in the sand,” Danyliw said. “That is going to be the catalyst for things to slow in the third and fourth quarters of this year.”

Real Estate Economics chief economist Mark Boud last month predicted an end to the double-digit gains in metro-area home prices in the second half of the year. While home prices fell month-over-month, DMAR’s July report shows the price of single-family homes and condos are up 12 percent compared with July 2015.

July set a same-month record low for active real estate listings with 7,468. The high of nearly 32,000 listings was set in July 2006. DMAR’s inventory numbers date back to 1985, Danyliw said.

New listings for single-family homes dropped 13 percent from June. New listings for condos fell 4 percent. The number of days properties spent on the market remained relatively stable in July, at 25 days for single-family homes and 22 days for condos.

For the month, 127 single-family homes sold at closing prices of $1 million or more. That’s down 16 percent from June but up 18 percent over July of last year.

“Price reduction was a common term seen in the luxury market, as sellers made adjustments in response to an overall slowdown,” DMAR Market Trends Committee member Jill Schafer said in the report.

The average luxury home price was more than $1.5 million, for a total volume of $193.4 million. The highest priced single-family home sold last month was a seven-bedroom, 11-bathroom Denver Country Club property that went for $5.6 million.