You know how this goes. You are at an event or party and someone asks you, “So, what do you do?” I answer, “I am a realtor.” After that bad look like someone just stepped on their toe leaves their face, they immediately ask you, “How is the market?”

I get these questions about four or five times per week so I am pretty adept at answering with extreme precision. So you may be wondering “How is the market?”

Answer: I am more optimistic than I have been in a long, long time and this isn’t just realtor speak. Here’s what I saw over the spring, summer, and fall selling seasons in Denver.

The $8,000 first-time home buyer stimulus did work and people took advantage of the opportunity. Homes in the 250K price range and below sold, many were sold at full price and inventory is low in this bandwidth. Overall, it was a good season for buyers and sellers in the lower price ranges.

The good news has started to creep up to the mid-level price ranges but not as fast as everyone had hoped. Yes, deals are getting done in the 400K, 500K, and 600K price ranges, but not at the pace everyone would enjoy or benefit from.

The biggest news is the activity in the 800K to 1.2 million dollar bandwidth. We not only saw a lot of showings in the last six months, but we saw more people than I expected pulling the trigger, making offers, and closing on homes. I think that this was attributed to several factors. First, buyers realized that there was an excellent opportunity here with a large number of homes available on the market and at rock bottom prices. Some sellers got smart, listened to the market, priced their homes accordingly, and sold them.

I have been saying for some time clearly there is pent-up demand building from buyers to get into the market. These people want to buy and can buy, but they just aren’t sure when is the appropriate time to jump in. Given the market news above, maybe that time is now or is fast approaching.