August 20, 2012 (Shirley Allen)

Monthly sales of new and resale homes and condominiums improved for the second consecutive month in the Denver area during June with sales for the month at their highest level in five years according to the latest data released from DataQuick.

An estimated total of 5,130 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Denver-Aurora metro area in June. Sales were 5.7 percent higher than the 4,852 homes sold in May and 19.0 percent higher than the 4,310 homes sold in June of 2011.

Home sales in the region typically increase around 14 percent between May and June and were 15.8 percent lower than the average number of homes typically sold during the month. Despite the lower than average sales, it was still the most sales for a June in five years.

Cash buyers accounted for 24.1 percent of the purchases in June, which was down from 25.2 percent in May but up from 23.2 percent a year earlier. The record for cash purchases was in February 2011, when 32.1 percent of the sales were for cash.

The median price that cash buyers paid for their homes in June was $174,131, up 18.9 percent from June 2011.

Absentee buyers, usually investors and vacation home buyers, accounted for 20.7 percent of all the homes sold in June, down from 22.8 percent in May. The median price they paid for their purchases was $166,699, up 19.1 percent from a year earlier. The record amount of purchases made by absentee buyers was 28.4 percent in February of 2011.

The overall median price paid for new and resale homes and condos in June was $241,550, up 4.1 percent from May’s median price of $232,000 and up 9.8 percent from $220,000 in June of last year. It was the fifth consecutive month that home prices improved year-over-year.

June’s median price is only 2.5 percent below the peak median price of $247,569 in June 2006.

Tags: Denver real state, existing home sales, Denver, distressed properties, resale homes, condos, cash buyers, investors, median price

Source:
DataQuick