Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Fourteen weeks. That is the number that matters right now.
Denver metro pending contracts just finished their 14th straight week below last year's pace. That is a record. It shatters the old high of 9 consecutive weeks, and it is the longest streak of year-over-year pending declines anybody has logged since June 2022. We are talking more than 50% longer than the previous record. a Denver brokerage's August 22, 2026 weekly update laid it out, and honestly, this is the part people miss.
Because when you hear "slowdown," your brain goes straight to supply. Too many homes, not enough buyers, sellers panic-listing all at once. That is the usual story. This is not that story.
Here is the thing. Inventory is actually slightly lighter than it was a year ago right now. It crept up modestly over the prior nine weeks, sure, but back over the same stretch in 2025 inventory fell 6.3%. So compared to last year we have fewer homes sitting around, not more. If this were a flood-of-listings problem, that number goes the other direction.
It did not. Which tells you the pullback is on the demand side. Buyers just stopped showing up.
And I mean that almost literally. Showings lead pending contracts. They are the tell, the thing that happens before anybody signs. Showings have been down every single week across this whole stretch, and the year-over-year gap is widening in five of the last six weeks instead of settling down. That is not a market catching its breath. That is buyers stepping back and staying back.
Rewind to the August 2 through 8 update and you can see it building. Pendings had been under last year for 13 weeks. Showings sat at just 1.21 per listing. Price reductions hit a 2026 high. Pendings were down 10% year over year. Every arrow pointing the same way.
Mortgage rates. Floating near 6.5% through this period. That is the anchor on the whole thing.
At 6.5%, the math on a $660,000 detached home (that is the July median for single-family, per the August DMAR report) does not pencil the way it did for a lot of folks a couple years back. So people wait. They tour less. They lowball more. And the ones who do move are asking sellers to eat some of the pain, which brings us to the real leverage shift.
Over 62% of July sales included seller concessions. The median concession ran about
Now, this is not a straight collapse. It is a split, and you have to see both halves.
Well-priced detached homes are still moving. Median 17 days on market in July for the move-in-ready stuff. Sellers who closed in that August 22 week still netted about 97.0% of list price on single-family after concessions. So if your house is priced right and shows clean, you are fine. You are more than fine.
Everything else is the problem child.
And the condo segment is getting hit hardest. Net closing ratios down at 93.7%. Half of all condo contracts are taking more than 60 days to close. Half. And here is the piece that makes it a Denver problem specifically: 50.3% of every actively listed condo in the whole metro sits inside the City of Denver. So that soft spot is not spread out across the suburbs. It is concentrated right in the core.
Look at the inventory math and it clicks. Detached homes are running roughly 3 months of supply at that $660,000 median. Attached condos and townhomes? Median of $380,000 and roughly 6 months of supply. Double the standing inventory, half the urgency.
Zoom out and the DMAR numbers keep it honest. Overall metro median landed at $605,000 in July. That is down 1.54% from June, but still up nearly 3% year over year. So prices have not cratered. This is a cooldown, not a crash.
But the advice flips, and this is the part I want you to hear.
Sellers, you cannot count on scarcity to bail you out this time. There is no wall of buyers waiting to bid you up because "there is nothing else out there." There is other stuff out there, and the buyers who exist are picky, patient, and asking for ten grand back. Price it wrong and you are the condo taking 60-plus days to close.
Buyers, this is your window. For the first time in a long while you have real leverage. You can take your time, you can ask for the buydown, you can walk away from the overpriced one and go see three more. That patience is worth actual money right now.
Fourteen weeks and counting. Keep an eye on the showing numbers, because those move first. When they stop falling, the rest follows. Until then, the person with the most patience is the person holding the cards.