Is the Denver market slowing down?

[Brian Bellew]

Over the last year I have been the lead broker on an acquisitions team for one of the largest institutional investment groups in the country.  They are publicly traded and have a $4 billion market cap with a portfolio over 30,000 properties.   We have been purchasing single family homes in cash around Denver and Colorado Springs and have kept a steady pace of about 15-20 deals per month.  We have closed 7 deals so far this week and August is going to turn out to be our best month so far in 2017.  I feel like I have a good pulse on the market here in Colorado and have not noticed a large uptick in inventory however deal flow has increased recently and our offers are being accepted without as much competition.  I understand seasonality has an impact as we head into the Fall however this year it seems a bit different.  Demand from buyers seems to be decreasing even though inventory remains relatively low.  Can we attribute this to hitting an equilibrium point where we have more of a balance of buyers and sellers as many buyers are priced out of the market?  Not sure what it means yet but feels different from the past three years where the market here has absolutely been on fire.  Is anyone else seeing this? 

[Colin Smith]

I also believe its the seasonal trend. In fact, I've found that one of the worst times to be on the market is the back to school season where the buyers hit a wall and stop looking. If it were me, I would rather be on the market between Thanksgiving and Christmas than the 2-3 week lull we see in August. This is especially true for property selling significantly higher than the median prices for an area.