Note: the following market update was first published in House Einstein's Fresh LIstings, our client newsletter. For our most recent views on the market and the latest active listings, sign up HERE.
What's Happening in Local Real Estate?
Anecdotally, we're having the most active November real estate market I can recall. But remember, one company's business activity is not representative of the market itself - even ours. Whenever you hear someone talk about the market, ask them about their data source.
So, let's talk about the data. 
City of Boulder
Sales volume for single family houses in October was down 8.3%, year over year. Condo and townhome sales were down 13.7% respectively. Supply also dropped. There were 28.7% fewer new house listings in October, compared to last year, and 20.2% fewer condos and townhomes, respectively. The median sale price was up a whopping 28.5% for houses and 6.3% for condos/townhomes, respectively. 
Boulder County
12.5% fewer single family houses traded hands last month. Condo/townhome sales were down 5.5%, year over year. As with the city, the pipeline of new listings also fell in the County. There were 25% fewer new listings for houses and new condo/townhome listings were down 22.8%. The median house price gained 15.2%. Condo/townhome prices rose 4.2%. 
City of Denver
Last month, new listings fell 19.1% year over year for single family houses. New listings for condos and townhomes fell 26.2%. Sales volume was down 17.6% for houses and up 4.3% for condos and townhomes, respectively. The median sale price was up 8.1% for houses and up 4.0% for condos and townhomes, respectively. 
Denver County
The median sale price across the entire County was up 4.3% for houses and up 2.9% for townhomes and condos, respectively. New listings fell 19.3% for houses and dropped 25.1% for townhomes and condos, respectively. Sales Volume dropped 18.6% for houses, but was up 4.5% for townhomes and condos.
Summary
Monthly real estate is notoriously volatile, especially at the city level. We usually like to see several months of clear trend to make a meaningful observation. With that said, it's clear that new listings and sales volume fell dramatically last month compared to the year before. Appreciation has also been stronger in Boulder than Denver. At the same time, 2020 was no ordinary year. The entire season was shifted a couple of months. When the lockdown ended, market conditions were unlike any we had seen before.
On the ground, extremely low inventory has spawned new strategies and tactics for buyers and sellers alike. It's a very different market than even a few months ago.
A few notes about the data:
- The data source for the charts above is InfoSparks, a service of ShowingTime, now owned by Zillow. It appears the original underlying data remains from IRES for Boulder and ReColorado for Denver, however InfoSparks is not entirely clear about that.
- Because real estate data is inputted by humans (Realtors and admins), who sometimes forget to update their listings, it's subject to change. IRES seems to have far more frequent changes to historical data than ReColorado.
- We've been tracking the market obsessively since 2005, using the best available data. For now, despite occasional inconsistencies, this is the best data for arms length transactions available.
Osman Parvez is the Founder and Employing Broker of House Einstein. Originally from the Finger Lakes region of New York, he lives in Boulder with his wife and their Labrador Retriever. He has been a Realtor since 2005.Osman is the primary author of the House Einstein blog with over 1,200 published articles about Boulder real estate. His work has also appeared in many other blogs about Boulder as well as mainstream newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal and Daily Camera. For more information, click HERE.
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The ideas and strategies described in this blog are the opinion of the writer and subject to business, economic, and competitive uncertainties. House Einstein strongly recommends conducting rigorous due diligence and obtaining professional advice before buying or selling real estate.
