Blog > Why Denver Sellers Are Losing Money While Prices Look Up
Why Denver Sellers Are Losing Money While Prices Look Up
by Alex Saldana
Why Denver Sellers Are Losing Money While Prices Look Up
By Alex Saldana, Colorado Real Estate Broker (License #042865) · August 30, 2026
▶ For the full breakdown, watch the video on YouTube.
Denver home values are down 12.7 percent from the 2022 peak, but the damage is wildly uneven. Union Station fell nearly 26 percent while Wash Park gained 2.5 percent this year. Here's the neighborhood by neighborhood breakdown.
Why are Denver sellers losing money right now?
The city and county of Denver is down 12.7 percent from its 2022 peak, a bigger drop than any suburb in the metro area.
That includes Aurora and Commerce City, the suburbs everyone keeps calling risky. If you own close to downtown, there's a real chance you'd bring a check to closing if you sold today. And it usually has nothing to do with your specific house. You can have the nicest kitchen on the block, price it right, stage it well, and still sit for 60 days while a house four miles away goes under contract in a weekend over asking. I've been selling real estate here since 2010, and I pulled Zillow's public research data for every neighborhood in the city to figure out what's actually going on. The short version: this isn't a citywide decline. It's a split, and the gap between the winning and losing sides of the map is about 26 points wide in the same city, in the same month.
Why do headlines say Denver prices are up?
The Denver Metro Association of Realtors reported a $605,000 median closed price in July, up almost 3 percent from a year ago.
Both numbers are true. They just measure different things. The median tells you what kind of houses sold, not what any house is worth. Picture a fifth grade classroom. Average height is 4 foot 6. The ten shortest kids transfer out, and suddenly the average is 4 foot 10. Nobody grew. The room changed. That's Denver right now. Entry level condos and townhomes near downtown stopped selling because their buyers got priced out by rates, while the expensive stuff keeps moving. Through July, roughly 3,600 metro sales closed over a million dollars, and luxury attached sales were up 81 percent year over year. The median drifts up while actual values fall. It also hides concessions. Right now 63 percent of metro closings include one, with a median around $10,000 handed back across the table. That money never shows up in the recorded price.
What actually caused Denver home values to fall?
Denver added about 36,000 new apartment units between 2022 and 2025, including 19,000 in 2024 alone, nearly double the 10-year average.
Denver's price run from 2015 to 2022 was built on scarcity. Values roughly doubled because the city got desirable faster than it built housing. Then three things hit close together. First, all those buildings permitted in 2020 through 2022, when money was nearly free, opened at once. By the end of last year there were more than 34,000 empty apartments metro wide and vacancy hit 7.6 percent, the highest in 16 years. Second, landlords cut rents. Average metro rent fell to $1,754, down 4.8 percent in a year, the largest drop of any major metro, with concessions averaging $169 a month. Third, Colorado home insurance premiums doubled since 2020 and rose another 18.3 percent in 2025, driven mostly by hail. Stack a 6 percent rate, a doubled insurance bill, and reset property taxes onto one monthly payment, and buying stopped being obvious.
Which Denver neighborhoods lost the most value?
Union Station leads the losses at 25.9 percent below its 2022 peak, followed by Indian Creek at 21 percent and Lincoln Park at 20 percent.
Jefferson Park is down 19.9 percent. Globeville and North Cap Hill are both down 18.6 percent. West Colfax, Baker, Five Points, Athmar Park, Westwood, and Highland are all down 15 to 18 percent. Read that list and ask what those neighborhoods share. It's not price. Union Station's median is around $780,000 and Globeville's is $365,000. It's not schools or crime either. Every one of them got built on massively. These are the up-zoned corridors, transit station areas, and old industrial land where new supply could legally land. I think of it like a flood map. All that inventory pooled in the low ground near downtown. Condos tell the same story. Denver condos are down 18.6 percent from peak versus 12.5 percent for detached houses, because a condo competes directly with the brand new building down the block offering ten free weeks.
Which Denver neighborhoods are still gaining value?
Wellshire sits at 0 percent off its peak and gained 2.6 percent this year, while Wash Park is up 2.5 percent.
Hilltop is up 1.8 percent this year and South Park Hill is up 2.2 percent. Country Club, Belcaro, Cherry Creek, and Congress Park all held far better than the citywide number. What do they share? You can't add homes there at any meaningful scale. Single family zoning, historic overlays, blocks built out generations ago. The new supply never reached them, not an inch. And here's the fact that should settle the whole debate. Parts of this city gained value in the same 12 months the metro posted the biggest rent drop in the country and led the nation in falling home values. If Denver had a demand problem, that would be impossible. You don't get appreciation in a city people are leaving. Prices fell where the supply landed and rose where it couldn't. That's not a city in decline. It's a market getting sorted.
Will Denver home values recover?
The construction pipeline that delivered 19,000 units in 2024 is projected to deliver about 5,000 in 2026, a 74 percent collapse.
The under-construction pipeline is running more than 40 percent below its long-term average, and absorption is projected around 6,400 units this year. For the first time in several years, demand is beating new supply. The flood isn't rising anymore. It's draining, and almost nothing is coming in behind it. That usually means the hardest-hit neighborhoods have the most room to recover, right when nobody wants to touch them. Two honest risks, though. About 115,000 units still sit in planning and permitting across the metro. Most won't get built at today's costs, but if rates drop, that pipeline reopens in the exact same neighborhoods. And condos carry extra baggage: HOA dues climbing with insurance, special assessments, and buildings where financing is genuinely hard. If you're buying attached in Denver, read the HOA financials and reserve study like your money depends on it, because it does.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much have Denver home values dropped?
The city and county of Denver is down 12.7 percent from the 2022 peak and 3.4 percent in the last year, based on Zillow's Home Value Index. That's a bigger fall than any suburb in the metro area, including Aurora and Commerce City.
Why is the median Denver home price still rising?
The median only reflects which homes sold. Entry level condos and townhomes near downtown stopped moving while luxury sales stayed strong, so the middle number drifted up to $605,000 even as most individual home values fell. Nobody's house gained value from that shift in the sales mix.
Should I sell my Denver home right now?
It depends almost entirely on your neighborhood. Homes in supply-heavy areas near downtown can face months of competition and repeated price cuts, while low-supply neighborhoods like Wash Park are still gaining. Pull the numbers for your specific block before listing, and consider renting the home out if selling means taking a loss.
Are Denver condos a bad buy in 2026?
Condos are down 18.6 percent from peak and carry extra risk: rising HOA dues, special assessments, and buildings where financing is difficult. Some are real discounts, but read the HOA financials and reserve study carefully before writing an offer. The building's health matters as much as the unit itself.
What is a seller concession and how common are they in Denver?
A concession is money the seller gives back at closing, usually toward the buyer's costs or a rate buydown. Right now 63 percent of Denver metro closings include one, with a median around $10,000. Concessions don't appear in recorded sale prices, so headlines understate what sellers are actually giving up.
Will Denver home prices go back up?
The setup points that way for hard-hit areas. New construction deliveries are collapsing 74 percent by 2026 while absorption runs around 6,400 units, so demand is finally beating supply. Recovery won't be instant, but Denver's problem was overbuilding rather than weak demand, and overbuilding tends to fix itself.
Thinking about buying or selling in Denver?
Call or text (303) 552-4804 for a no-pressure conversation about your situation.
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