Despite a spike in mortgage rates last month, prices held steady and sales only dropped by a small amount. Rates reach a 22-year high, but prices stay steady and sales drop.
A 22-year high in mortgage rates was reached last month, rising to 7.5% on a 30-year loan before falling back to around 7% following slower job gains than expected.
In August, higher mortgage rates weighed heavily on metro Denver’s housing market, but didn’t break it, according to a report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.
“The majority of sellers found themselves negotiating to get their homes under contract,” Nicole Rueth, a DMAR Market Trends Committee member and local mortgage professional, said in a video post accompanying the report.
Sales of homes and condos fell 2% last month to 3,792, and for the year sales are down 16.1%. Last month, sellers achieved 99.46% of their asking price while in July they achieved 99.89%. Listings took an average of 11 days to find a buyer, a 22% increase from 9 days.
Some sellers may have accelerated things due to concerns over a tougher market ahead. There were 4,863 new listings last month, up 1.7% from the previous month. The year-to-date total is down 6.2%. July saw a sharp decline of 24.8% in new listings.
As of July, there were 6,858, just below last year’s level of 6,939, of homes and condos available on the market.
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