Residential real estate showings in the Denver metropolitan region, hampered by the COVID-19 outbreak and corresponding stay-at-home orders, hit an all-time low last month.
On April 18, the slowest day of the month, real estate professionals showed 92.2% fewer homes than during the same month last year, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Denver Metro Area Realtors Association. The association is made up of Realtors in 11 counties, including Broomfield and Boulder counties.
"Safety concerns over entering strangers' homes persist," DMAR Market Trends Committee member Nicole Rueth said. "Orders to stay at home, plus a very real fear, sharply dropped our DMAR stats from their first quarter stronghold."
Across the metro region, closings were down more than 30% year-over-year in April, sales volume was down more than 29%, pending contracts were down nearly 46% and active listings dipped more than 2%, according to DMAR data.
In Broomfield County, active listings at the end of April were down 40.56% year-over-year and new listings dropped 60.63%. Total sales volume in the county plummeted 38.13%.
Boulder County real estate listings at month end were down 23.97% compared to April 2019 and new listings were off 49.50%. Sales volume in Boulder County was down 30.66%.
While sales slowed in April, there wasn't a corresponding price decrease. In fact, appreciation remained strong in Boulder where the median closing price was 8.9% higher than April 2019 and in Broomfield where annual appreciation was 3.32%.
Despite the slowdown, there are indications of pent up demand for residential real estate.
When isolation restrictions loosened on Monday, April 27, there were about 3,500 showings in the metro area. That's good for the busiest Monday in 2020. The number of showings has ticked up each day since, according to the report.
"These buyers might have been delayed by COVID but they're not gone," Rueth said.
Homes, so far, have mostly retained their value as the economy sputters. The median closing price in the metro area last month was $440,000, up 4.76% percent year-over-year.
While concerns over the economy remain high, several factors could work in the real estate market's favor: low interest rates; tight housing supply, especially for entry-level homes; and demographics creating demand as millennials start to reach the average age of first home purchase, 33 years old.
