Denver home values went up nearly 3.5% last month to $595,000 in March, according to a new report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors Market Trends released Wednesday.

Local home values are cyclical and typically rise ahead of summer and fall during the rest of the year. 

That median home price grew about 5% year-over-year. The average metro Denver home sales price jumped 4% month-over-month to $703,330 in March, a 5.5% increase from a year ago.

It’s the 11 county Denver region’s busy spring selling season and more sellers are continuing to put houses on the market, despite high interest rates.

The number of homes listed on the market, 5,849, is nearly 30% higher than the same month last year, according to the report. About 5,000 new listings went on sale in March, a 16% increase from the prior month but down 3.3% from March 2023..

“As we head into the warmer months, sellers have resigned themselves to the elevated interest rates and have begun to take the golden handcuffs off,” said the association’s Market Trends committee chair Libby Levinson-Katz in a statement.

Homes are selling much faster in the warming market. Most residential real estate sold within 11 days, less than half the time it took in February when the median days homes were on the market was 23 days.

Many sellers are choosing to downsize, Levinson-Katz said.

“The goal for these sellers is to sell their home and use the equity in their home to either purchase the next with their current equity or to obtain a significantly smaller loan,” she added. “Regardless of their plans, buyers are very happy to see additional inventory.”

Colorado loans $38 million to get thousands of factory-built homes made in state

March sales were at 99.75% close-to-the-listing price, a slightly wider gap than last year at 99.78%.

Denver saw 3,512 sales close in March, down 13% from last year, but up 13.4% from the 3,097 closings in February.

Total sales volume hit nearly $2.5 billion in March, the report said.

The most expensive sale in March was former-Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson’s Cherry Creek mansion at $21.5 million. He sold it at a loss of $3.5 million from when he bought it near the peak of the post-pandemic housing market boom in 2022.

The Market Trends Report covers the 11-county metro Denver area, including Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Gilpin, Jefferson and Park counties.