The Metro Denver housing market remains consistently hot. October continued to defy the cooling trend of the winter season as new records were broken by both buyers and sellers. This trend is largely driven by low-interest rates. Denver and the entire metro area remains a seller’s real estate market, especially in the $300,000 to $399,000 price range where it's getting even more difficult for buyers to compete.

Denver Metro saw a 2.4% increase in the number of homes sold through the third quarter of 2020. The area was recently named the second-best city to live in the country by U.S. News and World Report. Residential $3,363,002,016 sales volume represents the highest October on record and the fourth-highest month of all time.

The previous high in October was in 2019 at $2,487,936,752. July of 2020 was the all-time record at $3,965,805,480. Detached homes are the preference for many homebuyers today. In the last month, there was a record-high for the average sales price for both single-family detached and attached properties at $625,100 and $393,733 respectively, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.

The median closing price on a single-family home was $519,900 in October, an increase of 1.9% from September and 14.3% over the past year. The average closing price was $625,100, a 4.5% gain from September, and an 18% increase over the past year. October also saw a record-low of months of inventory at an astonishing 0.81.

The reason inventory is so tight is that sellers haven’t matched the enthusiasm buyers are showing in this pandemic. Active listings across both detached and attached single-family homes at the end of October 2020 stood at 4,821, a record low for October by nearly 2,000 listings. The number of active listings in metro Denver at the end of October was 4,821, a decline of 9% from September, and 43.7% from a year earlier.

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We'll be discussing the current state of the NYC real estate market, and also for the state of New York. As New York continues to fight the pandemic, Governor Cuomo has extended the state’s moratorium on COVID-related residential property evictions until January 1, 2021, through Executive Order. Additionally, previous Executive Orders have prohibited charges or fees for late rent payments, and tenants facing financial hardship can still use their security deposit as payment and repay their security deposit over time.

The New York real estate market (statewide) continued to be hot in September 2020 with both sales and prices increasing by double digits as compared to last year. The closed sales in September increased by 12.2% (YTY) while pending sales surged by +49.3%.

However, due to extreme disruptions caused by the pandemic, year-to-date sales (closed) are still behind last year by 11.6%. The statewide median sold price in New York climbed increased by 17.5% (YTY) to $324,900. The average sold price also jumped by double-digits (+ 18.2%) to $432,547. The price growth can be attributed to stronger buyer activity and an insufficient amount of homes available for sale.

On the other hand, the New York City housing prices trends have shifted from their normal course of trending up. After remaining firmly steady throughout the pandemic, July presented a whole new picture. July’s $680,000 median sale price represented a 13% year-over-year drop, according to PropertyShark.com.

This trend followed in August as well. August 2020 was marked by the lowest median sale price of the year and sales dropped 19% below July levels. The prices plunged again, from $680,000 to $665,000, declining 2% as compared to July and 1% as compared to last year. Real estate sales across the four boroughs of NYC were down 45% compared to last year's August, representing the sharpest year-over-year rate of contraction in three months. [Read more…]