Stay-at-home orders dealt a heavy blow to home sales across the state in April, but they didn't knock the market off its feet, according to a monthly update from the Colorado Association of Realtors.
Open houses were not permitted and in-person visits were limited until the final walk-through, which made marketing homes difficult. Concerned about their health and job losses, sellers and buyers alike pulled back.
Yet, contracts were closed on 7,590 residences across the state, with minimal discounting, and 6,761 properties were put under contract. And once showings were allowed again at the end of April, buyers came back out.
"Everybody expected there would be this massive tanking of our market when it opened back up, but on the contrary, we are back to where we were. It isn't doom and gloom," said Denver-area Realtor Matthew Leprino.
Yet, Leprino said he maintains a cautious outlook. Unemployment rates have spiked to their highest levels since the Great Depression, consumer credit scores are taking a hit, and lenders are tightening their loan standards, all of which could sideline many would-be buyers in the months ahead.
"We have rebounded, but now what is next?" he said.
Single-family home sales dropped 20.3% statewide, from 7,444 in April 2019 to 5,930 this April. Townhome and condo sales fell a steeper 32.4%, from 2,455 a year ago to 1,660 last month.
Buyers weren't the only ones holding back. The number of single-family homes that Colorado sellers listed fell 24.1% last month, from 9,591 in March to 7,281 in April. Condo and townhome listings dropped from 3,024 to 2,064, a decline of 32.1% over the month.
Single-family listings took 40 days on average to sell statewide in April, down from 47 days the same month a year earlier, while condos and townhomes took 42 days to sell compared to 46 days last year.
Median home sales prices largely held up. Statewide, they fell 1% month-over-month, to $419,900, and are still up 5% over the year. Condo and townhome prices dropped 4.3% to $315,000 on the month but remain up 3.3% on the year.
A report last week from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors showed similar declines in metro Denver. There were 3,603 homes and condos sold, a 24.3% drop month-over-month and a 30.8% drop year over year. New listings came in at 4,679, down 29.8% from March and 37.8% from April of 2019.
Jill Schafer, chairwoman of the DMAR Market Trends Committee, said in the report that buyers mostly avoided making low-ball offers, asking for big discounts or stretching out the sales process. Sellers in metro Denver received 99.96% of the listing price on average last month.
The median price of a single-family that closed in metro Denver and surrounding counties last month was $475,425, down 2.2% from March and up 3.35% from April 2019. The median price of a condo sold was $322,000, down 2.4% from March but still up 6.9% from a year earlier.
The drop in buying activity was especially pronounced in mountain resort counties, which were hit earlier and harder by the novel coronavirus outbreak, according to the CAR report. Sellers held back listings at a higher rate in metro Denver and in some of the counties on the Eastern Plains.
Across the state, high-end homes saw the biggest drop in demand. Some agents in higher-priced mountain communities argue that wealthy buyers escaping congested cities will fuel a rebound, while others noted that the collapse in oil and gas prices could reduce demand from Texans and push current owners from that state to sell.
"We really are unsure of our real estate and tourist economy in that none of us have ever experienced a health pandemic like we are in now," said George Harvey, a Telluride-area Realtor, in comments accompanying the CAR report.
