Even though federal homebuyer tax credits expired April 30, they continued to boost the Denver area's home resale market in May, according to Metrolist Inc. data released Tuesday.
May completed sales of such homes, including houses and condominiums, increased more than 20 percent in the metro area, to 4,365, from the same month of 2009.
But homes put under contract for purchase dropped roughly 27 percent to 3,883 year over year, partly because of the credits' expiration, according to residential brokers.
Comparing May to April of this year, homes put under contract for purchase last month dropped 41.3 percent.
The tax credits also caused homes to sell faster in May. Together, houses and condos were on the market an average of only 76 days, a 27.6 percent drop from May 2009 and down 5 percent from this April.
Average sold price for both types of resale home rose 2 percent last month from May 2009, to $248,126. But sold prices dipped a little from April to May -- nearly 1 percent.
According to independent Littleton broker Gary Bauer, resale homes under contract were down last month partly because of the lost tax incentives, but sales were up "because of the pipeline of under-contract activity from prior months" prompted by the credits.
"May really reflects a good month for resales," said Bauer, who's also a Metrolist analyst. "I like to use word normalizing to describe it, because that's what our housing market is doing; it's normalizing."
Bauer expects selling prices for resale homes stay relatively strong throughout 2010.
"My thought is prices will not decrease dramatically the rest of year, but we may see a month here and there with price drops," Bauer said. "Pricing should generally remain pretty stable this year, with maybe a small increase."
The federal government, as part of the Obama administration's economic stimulus program, offered a tax credit last year and early this year for as much as $8,000 to first-time homebuyers and a credit for repeat homebuyers, also called the move-up credit, of as much as $6,500. Both credits expired April 30 for home sales that must be completed, or closed, by June 30.
Unsold resales homes still on the market rose 6.2 percent to 22,016 year over year, and that's positive because it signals greater consumer confidence, according to brokers.
"The number of homes on market is up a little bit, and that's good news," said Ed Tomlinson, broker at Re/Max Alliance of Arvada and Metrolist analyst. "A lot of home sellers were sitting tight, worried about overall market, but now they're putting their homes on the market."
Metrolist, based in Greenwood Village, is metro Denver's Multiple Listing Service and provides home-sale information to real estate professionals.
Other data from Metrolist's May report:
• Sales of houses rose 19.6 percent to 3,416 from May 2009, and were up 3.3 percent from April of this year.
• Houses under contract for purchase dropped 27 percent last month to 3,139 year over year, and were down 39.3 percent from April.
• Houses were on the market for sale an average of 75 days, down 27.9 percent from May '09 and down 5 percent from April.
• Average sold price for homes rose 4.3 percent to $273,285 year over year and was basically flat from April of this year.
• Median sold price increased 4.6 percent to $230,000 year over year, and was flat compared to the previous month this year.