If anyone was hitting the pause button, it seemed to be sellers.
In a year where the number of listings is up by about half, active listings shrank in October to 10,940, down 1.6% from the 11,115 available at the end of September. The decline came about mostly because sellers were holding back, not buyers. Metro Denver had 4,691 new listings last month, a 7.2% decline from September’s count.
“Presidential election seasons are unique. They heighten normal buyer and seller uncertainty and hesitation. It is not a huge difference, but it is an amplification,” said Michelle Schwinghammer, a member of the DMAR Market Trends Committee and Denver-area Realtor. As to wholesale slamming on the brakes, the statistics don’t support that despite the anecdotes that circulate of buyers and sellers alike saying they are holding off. Also at play this fall — the Fed’s cut in its key benchmark rate. Initially, the move caused mortgage rates to fall, improving affordability for buyers. But by the second half of October rates were moving higher again.The median price of a stand-alone or detached home rose to $650,000 in October, a 3.