Denver Home Prices Are Falling, but Does That Mean Buying a House Is Affordable?

Denver had the seventh-highest drop in home prices in 2024, according to Realtor.com. But that doesn’t necessarily mean buying a home in Denver is affordable.

Though the median list price of a home in Denver was down 5.35 percent in December 2024 compared to December 2023, the median list price is still $577,350. Still, real estate experts are taking the news of the drop as another sign that markets are leveling out from pandemic-induced, skyrocketing prices.

“Austin, Denver, Phoenix and Nashville were the darling markets of 2021 and 2022 and places where prices went wild,” says Joel Berner, Realtor.com senior economist. “Now, with more homes on the market, prices are returning to where they belong.”

In addition to falling prices, Denver also had the third-most inventory growth over the last year, with 41.9 percent more inventory in 2024 than 2023, according to Realtor.com.

Another trend observed by the Realtor.com researchers suggests that home prices are declining because smaller homes are being listed.

“Nationwide, the median list price decreased by 1.8 percent year over year, settling at $402,502 last month, even as the price per square foot inched up by 1.3 percent during the same time, pointing to a glut of smaller and more affordable homes on the market,” the report notes of the overall market.

Denver may not be contributing to that national trend, though, as the median listing price per square foot in the Mile High City is actually down 1.1 percent over the last year.

While homebuyers may have a better shot at getting a reasonably priced home in the Mile High than they did a year ago, prices still haven’t dropped to pre-COVID levels — or even gotten close to that point. The median listing price in Denver now compared to December 2019 is 16.1 percent higher. The median listing price per square foot is even worse, at 34.1 percent higher than 2019 numbers. One thing prospective homebuyers can be grateful for: They don’t have to make the enormous decision of which house to buy in nearly as much haste as in years past, since homes are staying on the market longer.

In December 2024, available homes typically spent seventy days on the market, which Realtor.com says is a nine-day increase from December 2023.

“This marks the slowest December since 2019 and the slowest month since January 2023, marking the ninth month in a row where homes spent more time on the market compared with the previous year,” the report says. “However, the time a typical home spends on the market is still eight days less than the average December from 2017 to 2019.”

With a recent report from U-Haul finding more people moving out of Denver than into the city for the first time in five years, it's possible that home prices could continue to drop. Denver also led the nation for new home inventory among large cities last year, another promising sign for prospective buyers.