Metro Denver home sales revved up in April as warmer weather drew out more buyers, according to statistics released Thursday.
“Late March and early April is the start of the prime real estate marketing season. April was a good month,” said Gary Bauer, an independent real estate analyst.
The 4,399 metro-area homes sold in April was 2.9 percent higher than March and 2.3 percent above the volume in April 2006.
The picture was more mixed in terms of prices paid. Condos and townhomes dropped 2.7 percent in median value from March, while single-family homes rose 3.3 percent.
Compared with April 2006, median condo prices, at $148,900, are 5.4 percent lower, while single-family home prices, at $248,000, are off 0.8 percent.
Joe DeVito, a broker associate at Re/Max Alliance in Arvada, said overbuilding has caused the condo market to fare worse than the single-family home market.
“I don’t see that market improving. The condo market is going to be bad the entire year,” he said.
More buyers listed their homes in April, a trend that is expected to continue into July. That caused the inventory of unsold homes to rise 5.4 percent from March levels to 27,858.
Homes are taking longer to sell, remaining on the market an average of 116 days compared with 101 days in April 2006, DeVito said.
Tighter lending standards and higher gasoline prices could weigh on the market in coming months, Bauer predicted.
Higher gasoline prices will make outlying developments with long commutes less popular, while tighter lending standards could lower how much money borrowers with impaired credit ratings can qualify for, Bauer said.
That could work in favor of condos and townhomes and lower-priced single-family homes.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
