298 homes sold in Fort Collins CO during May 2021, a gain of 16.9% from the 255 homes sold in April 2021, and a whopping increase of 79.5% from the 166 homes sold in May 2020, although any comparison to last year is strongly influenced by pandemic impacts. 2021 year-to-date sales of 1,119 are up 27.9% as well from 2020’s 875 sales for the same time period.

Prices:

Once again, home prices increased in May 2021, driven by the imbalance between high demand and low inventory. The median price gained 4.7% to $534K from $510K in April 2021, while the average price gained 5.9%, to $592K from $559K. Over the course of the last year, average and median home prices have risen almost $100K.

Inventory:

After a solid year of inventory declines, in May 2021, we finally saw an increase in the availability of homes for sale. At the end of May, there were 144 homes on the market in Fort Collins CO, a 28.6% gain from April 2021’s 112 homes for sale. The Month’s Supply of Inventory (MSI) rose to 0.5 months, still far short of normal levels.

Summary:

It’s still too early to tell if the inventory gains of last month are a reversal of the trend, but there’s little question that a lack of sufficient homes to meet buyer demand - the main driver of our current market - will continue to impact the market in coming months. We simply don’t have a feel for the size of what pent-up demand might be, nor do we yet have a full understanding of how big the potential pool of sellers is. But we believe that the strong increase in home prices is a major factor holding potential sellers back from trading up. And as long as the imbalance between supply and demand remains strong, we’ll see home prices continuing to rise. But for now, it’s good to see inventory starting to move upward - that’s the direction that is needed to move our market back toward equilibrium. We’ll keep you updated as we watch how this plays out.