How are Denver home prices holding up?

As the Denver-area housing market moves toward the end of its prime selling season, August sales were down year over year, but selling prices were relatively stable.

Last month’s home sales, including both single-family homes and condominiums, dropped 14 percent to 3,905 from August 2008, according to a Wednesday report by real estate data provider Metrolist Inc. of Greenwood Village. Sales were down 12 percent from July of this year.
But the average selling price for both types of housing decreased only 3.87 percent year over year to $251,008, and was roughly flat from July with only a 0.68 percent drop.

The median, or middle, selling price for single-family homes alone — standard houses — was basically flat year over year at $227,000, down 0.89 percent from August 2008. Last month’s median price was down 1.26 percent from July of this year.
Median price is the midpoint between highest and lowest prices, and is considered a truer measure of price by many real estate experts because it’s not skewed by extremes.
Both houses and condos also sold faster in August, with fewer days on the market for sale year over year and from July of this year.
Other Denver-area housing market data for August, according to Metrolist, includes:
• Single-family home sales — Down 14.38 percent to 3,066 from August 2008, and down 12 percent from July of this year.
• Single-family home average selling price — Down 3.71 percent to $273,972 year over year, and roughly flat from July with a 0.97 percent drop.
• Single-family home days on market (DOM) — Houses are selling faster, with an August DOM of 94. That’s down 3 percent year over year, and down 4 percent from July.
• Condo sales — Dropped 12.7 percent to 839 last month compared to August 2008, and were down 12.24 percent from this July.
• Condo average selling price — Fell 3.87 percent to $167,090 from August 2008, but relatively flat from July of this year with a 0.94 percent dip.
• Condo average days on market — Condos are also selling faster, with 98 DOM for August. That’s down 5.77 percent year over year, and down 10 percent from July.
• Year-to-date total home sales — Dropped 16.38 percent to 27,708 from same period of ’08.
• Year-to-date total average selling price — Decreased 6.67 percent to $240,746 from first eight months of last year.
• Year-to-date average days on market — 102, down 1.92 percent year over year.