Denver Real Estate MLS Market Stats - February 2022 ⋆ Denver Investment Real Estate

February Market Update for Denver and Colorado Springs

The February 2022 MLS trends data for Denver are now out, and we have all the stats and analysis you need to understand the market.

Three Learning Options!

Listen to the podcast “#356: Denver Real Estate MLS Market Stats – February 2022” on the Denver Real Estate Investing Podcast
Watch the YouTube video (at the bottom).
Read the blog post. Note, the blog is an executive summary. Get the in-depth breakdown from the podcast or video.

Looking at a chart that covers the past 15 years of active listings in Denver, from the 2008 crash to now, we’re seeing incredibly low inventory. Currently, we’re hovering just above 1K active listings. For comparison, 5 years ago there were 4K homes, and 15 years ago, there were 20K plus homes. We don’t have enough properties on the market, and the ones that do come on go under contract right away.

What this means is that for every property that comes on the market, there are multiple buyers who want it. This leads to bidding wars and is the reason Denver is at 104% when it comes to closed price vs list price. Essentially, if a home is listed at $1000, it will go under contract at $1050.

We’re not going to change the market, so the best we can do is understand the trends and adapt to it.

Coming Soon: New Show Format

Starting next month, we’re going to begin changing the format of our monthly updates. We want to bring in more experts around town with tips to navigate the market. We’ll still provide stats, but we’ll also have more of a talk show style format that will allow everyone to share their perspective.

We’re excited about this change and want your feedback. Let us know what stats you want to see, and if you come across an interesting one, send it to us. Leave a comment or send us an email—we want to hear from you!

February 2022 Denver Market Stats with Ideas and Observations

Number of new listings:
- +4% from last month
- -39% from last year
- Normally I’d expect to see a little more growth in inventory at this time of the year.
- The number of new listings wasn’t great (down -7% from same period last year), AND we’re just putting them under contract so fast that the active count is growing any.
Closed units:
- +5% from last month
- -19% from last year
- The number of closings is depressed partially due to higher rates and partially from lack of inventory.
Closed price:
- Up 7% from last month
- +17% from last year
- With the supply/demand imbalance, I’d expect this to continue through spring.
- I imagine the rate of appreciation will slow down in the second half of the year.
Showings / active listing:
- Showings are at a record high; a decent amount above where they were last year.
Under contract:
- Up 12% from last month, a normal seasonal trend (should be a little higher actually)
- Down 9% from same period last year
- Closed units in Feb was -19% from last year, looks like March will “only” be down -8% to -12% from last year).
Discount:
- The average home sold at a 3.5% premium to ask price in February
- There are plenty of stories of homes selling for $100K over asking, but they are the exception.

The year on year trend comments above are interesting, but looking at the five year trend is really jarring:

Active listing ’22 YTD (1,226) vs ’19 (6,017). ’19 was a hot market, too.
New listings ’22 YTD (7,671) vs prior four years (average is 9,410) … that’s an 18% drop in new listings.
Sold ’22 YTD (6,241) vs prior four years (average 6,861) … -9% drop in closed listings.

Source: The above executive summary is from Lon Welsh of Your Castle Real Estate.