DENVER MARKET REPORT | September 2026

Published September 8, 2026 | Updated September 28, 2026 with full SMDRA and CAR data.

DENVER MARKET REPORT  |  SEPTEMBER 2026

What the Numbers Actually Mean for You

By Brian Trampler  |  Corcoran Perry & Co.

August gave us a market that’s settling into its late-summer rhythm, and the story is less about a turn than a pause. Closings slowed sharply, prices eased for the second month in a row, and homes took noticeably longer to sell than they did in July.

DMAR’s committee chair put it well in the association’s release this month: the uncertainty in the broader economy hasn’t translated into real instability in this market. Rates haven’t committed to a direction, inflation hasn’t settled, and yet the Denver numbers keep landing in a fairly narrow band, month after month. That sameness is itself the story.

The clearest split in the data isn’t buyers versus sellers. It’s detached versus attached. Single-family homes are holding their value and moving at a reasonable pace. Condos and townhomes are carrying almost all of the softness, sitting longer and losing more ground on price. If you’re making a decision this fall, which side of that line your home sits on matters more than the metro headline does.

None of this means the market stalled. It means buyers have a little more room to think, and sellers have to work a little harder to earn a serious offer.

 

The Snapshot

August in Denver Metro, at a glance:

Median Home Price: $595,000, down 2% from July and essentially flat compared to a year ago.

Days on Market: 29 days, up from 22 in July and the biggest one-month jump of the year so far.

Homes Sold: 3,118, down 15% from July and down 13% from last August.

New Listings: 4,892, up 4% from a year ago but down 10% from July as the summer selling push faded.

Pending Sales: 3,341, up 3% from July even as new listings slowed, a modest sign buyers are still writing offers.

Active Inventory / Months of Supply: 13,211 listings, about 18 weeks of supply, down slightly from a year ago.

 

Two independent counts landed almost on top of each other this month: REcolorado put the metro median at $595,000, and DMAR’s separate 11-county tally came in at $594,495. When two sources agree that closely, it’s worth paying attention to. Put together, this is a market where prices are easing a little and pace is slowing a little more, a combination that tends to reward buyers who take their time and sellers who price accurately from day one.

 

If You’re Buying

You have more time and more room than you did in the spring. With homes sitting a median of 29 days and roughly 18 weeks of supply on the market, there’s no need to rush a decision out of fear the house will be gone tomorrow. That said, well-priced homes in good condition are still finding buyers quickly. This is a market that rewards patience on ordinary homes and speed on the good ones.

If you’re looking at a condo or townhome, you likely have real leverage right now. Attached inventory grew close to 10% from a year ago while detached inventory actually shrank, and attached homes are sitting roughly twice as long as detached ones. That’s not a reason to avoid the attached market, it’s a reason to negotiate harder when you’re in it.

For first-time buyers watching from the sidelines, this is closer to a normal market than anything we’ve seen in a few years. Prices aren’t racing away from you, and you’re not competing against a dozen other offers on every house you like. It’s still a real financial decision, and it still deserves a clear-eyed look at what you can carry long term, not just what you can get approved for.

The question worth asking yourself: if the house checks every box except one, is that one thing something you can live with, or something you’re hoping will go away?

 

If You’re Selling — or Trading Up

Pricing is doing more work than it was in the spring. The median price slipping for a second straight month doesn’t mean the market turned, it means buyers have options and are using them. Homes that are priced accurately for their condition and location are still selling in a reasonable window. Homes that are priced for last spring are the ones racking up the days-on-market numbers.

If you’re selling a condo or townhome, be honest with yourself about the competition. Attached inventory is up and attached days on market are running roughly double detached. That’s not a reflection on your home, it’s the segment you’re in, and it means presentation and pricing carry more weight than they would for a single-family listing right now.

For anyone thinking about trading up, the math is more forgiving than it feels. You’re likely selling into the same slower, more negotiated market you’d be buying into, which tends to even out. The real question isn’t whether it’s a perfect time, it’s whether waiting another year buys you anything beyond a different set of unknowns.

The question worth asking yourself: if you priced your home for the market you remember from a year or two ago, is that the market you’re actually selling into today?

 

The Local Angle

The detached-versus-attached divide is the defining story of the Denver market right now, and it shows up clearest at the top of the market. Of the new $1 million-plus listings in August, nearly all were single-family homes, and detached luxury homes are actually selling faster than they were a year ago. Attached luxury properties, meanwhile, are sitting close to twice as long as they were last August. Buyers at that price point aren’t just buying a unit, they’re buying the building, and any sign of deferred maintenance or dated common areas is costing sellers real time on market.

Late summer is also just late summer. School is back in session across the metro, and the buyer pool that was moving fast in June and July naturally thins out heading into fall. That’s baked into these numbers as much as any shift in rates or sentiment, and it’s worth remembering before reading too much into any single month.

For investors watching the rental side, REcolorado’s numbers show fewer completed leases in August, down 15% from a year ago, but pricing held essentially flat. That combination, less activity but stable rents, suggests renters are being more selective rather than the rental market softening broadly. Worth keeping an eye on if you’re weighing a purchase against ongoing rental income.

 

Mid-Month Update

We’ll have a fuller, more local picture in a couple of weeks once SMDRA and CAR publish their south metro and city-level numbers. That’s where the neighborhood-by-neighborhood detail lives, and it often tells a different story than the metro-wide figures above.

 

August was quieter than July, and the numbers reflect a market that’s settling into a slower rhythm as summer winds down. Nothing here points to a sharp turn in either direction, just a market where fewer people are transacting and the ones who are have more room to negotiate. September and October will tell us whether this is a seasonal pause or the start of something more lasting.
 

MID-MONTH UPDATE — SEPTEMBER 28, 2026

The fuller data is in, and it mostly confirms the early read rather than changing it. SMDRA's south metro numbers put the median at $590,000, essentially flat year over year, with closed sales down about 12.6% and pending sales down about 5.9%. Days on market came in at 29, matching the metro figure exactly. New listings were up about 5.1% from a year ago. Nothing here contradicts what REcolorado and DMAR showed us three weeks ago. It confirms it.

CAR's four-county core data is where the detached-versus-attached split gets sharper. Active listings across the core were down 13.4% from a year ago, but that number hides two very different stories: single-family active inventory dropped 18.3% while attached inventory fell only 5.8%. Single-family homes are also moving faster, down 4.7% in days on market, while attached homes are taking about 5% longer than a year ago. On price, single-family median rose 1.5% to $690,000. Attached median slipped 2.4% to $371,000. That's the same pattern the early read pointed to, just with real numbers behind it now.

City-level detail tells a mostly consistent story with one exception worth flagging. Wheat Ridge single-family inventory dropped 45.3% with prices up 2.3%. Centennial inventory fell 44.2% with prices up 1.4%. Castle Rock inventory dropped 16.9% with prices up 3.1%. Highlands Ranch inventory tightened by a similar 17.7%, but the median price there actually declined 1.5%. Tighter inventory usually pairs with firmer pricing, and in three of these four suburbs it did. Highlands Ranch didn't follow that pattern this time, and it's worth watching rather than smoothing over.

For anyone relocating from Colorado Springs or elsewhere on the Front Range, the practical takeaway is the same one from the early read, now with sharper edges. The softness in this market is concentrated in condos and townhomes, not single-family homes. If you're shopping single-family in Wheat Ridge, Centennial, or Castle Rock, expect real competition, inventory there has fallen by roughly half. Homes.com's national comparison, now published for August, backs up the broader picture: Denver's metro median of $585,990 was essentially flat year over year at 0.2%, and the metro ranked 10th nationally for price among the top 40 markets they track.

Put together, the last three weeks of data didn't change the story, they filled it in. Detached homes are holding firm on price and moving reasonably well. Attached homes are carrying the softness almost entirely. And that split isn't happening evenly across the metro, it's showing up county by county and suburb by suburb in ways the headline numbers alone would never tell you.