What is happening with the Denver real esate market at this time?

As we head into the summer selling season, we are faced with lower inventory and many buyers in the buyer pool looking at the same homes. Gone are the days when you could wait a few days to make a decision. I have been running into multiple offer situations at various price points and homes that are well priced and in good condition come off the active market almost as soon as they come on. This is great news for sellers that have been waiting for the market to start changing for the better. Many homes that are short sales and foreclosures are slowly getting absorbed all over the city. For the third straight month, metro Denver posted a year-over-year increase in home prices in March, at a pace that eclipsed all but two of the nation's 20 largest markets, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Index. Denver also saw a bigger month-over-month price gain in March than all but six other markets, seasonally adjusted, according to the closely-followed monthly report on average home-resale prices from Standard & Poor's. Denver's three consecutive months of year-over-year price gains followed 18 months of declines. Denver prices were up 2.6 percent in March from the same month of 2011, the Case-Shiller report said. That followed year-over-year gains of 0.5 percent in February and 0.2 percent in January. The only major markets with greater gains in the year ending in March were Phoenix (up 6.1 percent) and Minneapolis (up 3.3 percent). The average year-over-year price change over the 12-month period in the 20 markets tracked by the report was a 2.6 percent decline; Atlanta saw the biggest price decline, down 17.7 percent. Only seven of the 20 markets saw prices rise. Metro Denver's year-over-year gains in March, February and January followed annual declines of 0.4 percent in December 2011 and 0.2 percent in November 2011. This can be attributed to our slightly cyclical market due to inclement weather. Before that, year-over-year price declines in the area had ranged from 0.9 percent to 4.1 percent going back to July 2010. (See the table at the end of this article for data on year-over-year price changes in Denver for the last few years.) The prices are for resales of stand-alone single-family homes only, not for new construction or condominiums. As for price changes from one month to the next, prices in Denver rose 1.1 percent in March from February, seasonally adjusted. Adjusted prices were up 0.3 percent from January to February, the Case-Shiller report said. (Not seasonally adjusted, Denver prices rose 1.5 percent in March from February after falling 0.9 percent in February from January.) March's month-to-month average price change for all 20 cities in the report was up 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and flat, not seasonally adjusted. The Case-Shiller report assigns index values to the 20 cities based on current average home prices in relation to what they were in January 2000. Denver’s index for March was 123.66, meaning that prices were 23.7 percent higher than they were in January 2000. The 20-city average index was 134.1. The Case-Shiller index is compiled by comparing matched-price pairs for thousands of single-family homes in each market. Standard & Poor’s and Fiserv Inc. publish it. Please see below for declines and then positive changes on prices in the metro area. Denver home price changes 2010-2011 Here are year-over-year price changes in the Denver area from the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Index report for recent months: March 2012: Up 2.6 percent. February 2012: Up 0.5 percent. January 2012: Up 0.2 percent. December 2011: Down 0.4 percent. November 2011: Down 0.2 percent. October 2011: Down 0.9 percent. September 2011: Down 1.5 percent. August 2011: Down 1.6 percent. July 2011: Down 2.1 percent. June 2011: Down 2.5 percent. May 2011: Down 3.3 percent. April 2011: Down 4.1 percent. March 2011: Down 3.8 percent. February 2011: Down 2.6 percent. January 2011: Down 2.3 percent.