As is the case in many metropolitan regions of the U.S., the real estate market in Denver is down. Experts believe that this will continue to be the case until consumer confidence figures start to improve significantly, especially those factors relating to jobs and job security. Another complicating factor is the sheer number of foreclosures on the market and the entire foreclosure process that has come under recent scrutiny and criticism.



The Denver real estate market was down again in October, 2010, dropping 24.5% in terms of the number of homes and condos that were placed under contract during the month. This is the 4th month in a row of double digit drops compared to year-ago results. The numbers for homes and condos that closed in October, 2010, look somewhat similar, registering a drop of 28.2% when compared to the same month one year ago. In total for the month 2,842 condos and single family homes closed in the Denver market compared to 3,846 a year earlier.



The figures for unsold homes on the market also worsened. In October of 2009 the supply of unsold homes stood at 4.7 months, but this jumped to 7.3 months in October of 2010. In all, 21,360 unsold homes were on the market compared to 18,945 in October of 2009.



In a surprise turn, prices for sold homes went up rather substantially in October. Normally this is a good sign for the business, but in this case it seems to indicate that owners of higher priced homes who were forced to sell because they are required to move to another part of the country had to lower prices and offer good deals to buyers. Agents reported that some of these sellers had to bring significant cash to the closing to get out of their homes. The actual figures for prices for sold homes in Denver in October were $287,048 compared to $261,771 a year earlier.



Some sellers are abandoning their plans for selling and taking their properties off the market and refinancing their loans in hopes of waiting for a better market later. Of course until then they want to take advantage of the near record low interest rates that currently exist.



As was mentioned above, consumer confidence is way down. Although the Consumer Confidence Index rose to 50.2 in October from 48.6 in September, the number is still very low. A level of 90 indicates a stable economy, and 100 is indicative of strong growth. The index has not been at that latter level since mid-2007.

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