According to the Colorado Association of Realtors (CAR) January report, the low housing inventory seen in Colorado remains shocking to even the state’s most experienced realtors.

Data in the report showed that statewide, just 4,151 single-family properties were listed — a 44.5% dip from January 2021, when 7,480 single-family homes were listed. That’s about half as many as the 14,520 single-family listings in Colorado pre-pandemic.

Other highlights include:

·       The 1,011 active condo and townhome listings were down more than 68% from 3,173 listings a year ago. January 2020 saw 5,097 attached home listings.

·       In the seven-county Denver-metro area, just over 1,400 single-family homes were available in January, down 57% from a year ago. There were just 461 condo or townhome properties listed, off 74% from January 2021.

·       For Colorado and the Denver metro, just half a month's supply of inventory is on the market, which once again represents a record low. A balanced market, according to the National Association of Realtors, would have about six months of inventory supply.

What’s the impact of this low inventory? Higher prices. The median pricing held steady from December to January, while year-over-year median pricing is about 17% to 19% higher. Condo or townhome properties are on the higher end of that range.

CAR’s Housing Affordability Index — a measure of how affordable a region’s housing is to consumers based on interest rates, median sales price and median income by county — is down 22% from a year prior for the Denver metro and for the state.

The CAR report is in line with the Denver Metro Association of Realtors report released at the beginning of February, which said that the Denver metro hit a new record low in January of just 1,184 listing at the end of the month. Both reports have their own methodologies, and the DMAR report includes 11 counties in the Denver metro area.

Hopefully, with spring months not too far off, we’ll see an uptick in available listings. Still, we don’t anticipate a flood of homes to hit the market all at once, so you’ll still want to be ready to move when