DENVER (KDVR) – You don’t have to be a Colorado native to know that the Colorado housing market is hot. Currently, single family homes are sold for an average of $623,825, breaking the previous record of $587,484 in March of 2021. For the last seven years, it’s been more a sellers market than a buyer’s market.
Ryan Sondrup is a native of Colorado and he says he’s seen it all when it comes to the ups and downs of the real estate market, but he’s never seen it this insane ever. Sondrup started Nexstep Real Estate 15 years ago and says he hasn’t seen a middle ground in the market. The market went from a buyers market to a sellers market very quickly.
When he started his business the transactions were unique.
“We were in short sales and foreclosures, and there was a stretch where you didn’t do a normal sale,” he said. “Everything was going through the banks. It was all short sales. That was the average transaction.”
According to Sondrup, “real estate is simple. It’s supply in demand.” And he’s never seen supply this low.
Within the six-county metro area, there is a record low inventory of homes. Just last month there were under 2,000 homes for sale. Ryan says that this time of year you would normally see around 14,000 properties for sale within the metro counties, so to have it around 2,000 is extremely low.
WIth inventories at a record low and over 30,000 licensed realtors right now, it’s a challenging market for everyone. For the first time in Ryan’s career he’s had to limit taking in new buyers. He says can only work with a handful of buyers right now because it’s so time consuming.
“I’ve had to turn buyers down in order to give my full attention to get them into a home,” he said.
The market is so competitive that Sondrup says on average he’s writing up 10 to 12 offers before getting a client under contract. This is not only time consuming, but exhausting for a buyer which can cause big burnout.
Buyers are so desperate to get into a home, offers are through the roof and with interest rates so low, many home buyers are jumping at the opportunity to be a homeowner.
The Denver Metro Association of Denver Realtors told the Problem Solvers the average house sells $30,000 over the asking price, but in many cases, homes are selling for even more. So what’s the solution?
Sondrup says, “in order for this market to change we need to decrease demand or increase supply.”
But how do we do that? Where does the demand slow down and where does the inventory come from since builders are not building at the rate they normally do. There’s no crystal ball and according to Sondrup, there’s nothing on the horizon that indicates any radical changes.
The Colorado native says the most challenging aspect currently is helping clients understand where we are at in the market to not buy for too much. His job is look out for the client’s well being in order to build a relationship for right now, but in the long run he wants buyers to “buy the right house and find the perfect fit to continue to do it over and over again.”
He also adds, “you need to save in this business. You never know and it’s a roller coaster ride for sure.”