Home prices see biggest sustained dip in more than a decade

Will pattern hold?

BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

It’s a statistic that, not long ago, homebuyers could have only dreamed of: e median price of a single-family home in the Denver area dropped by more than $90,000.

e drop from $660,000 in April to $569,800 this January represented the steepest, longest sustained decline in median sales price for single-family homes in the Denver metro area since the start of 2010.

at’s according to the Colorado Association of Realtors, whose data goes back to that year.

Statewide, the decline in the median price of a single-family home from April to January also represented the steepest, longest sustained decline in that same period.

While that warrants some celebration, that downslide only erased 2022’s price increases — the steep hikes of 2020 and 2021 haven’t been wiped away, and housing a ordability remains dismal in the metro area and around Colorado.

Cooper ayer, a young Realtor in Douglas County, knows people his age can struggle to a ord homes even with the right tools on their side.

“Last year, when I graduated college, I make a slightly-above-median income for my age, but I wouldn’t be able to a ord a home in the next ve years without external help,” said ayer, 21, who was born and raised in Castle Rock.

Entry-level housing “just isn’t there” in the Denver metro area, especially in Douglas County, ayer said.

“I think the lesson there is that even with good nancial planning and budgeting and nancial literacy, I’m just constrained by the high housing prices and the lack of inventory on the entry-level segment in Douglas County,” ayer said.

What’s ahead

After Colorado’s already-expensive housing market saw prices increase