Denver Home Prices Dipped in July. Luxury Condos Just Had Their Best Month in Years.

By Prerna Kapoor, CLHMS | REAL Brokerage | August 6, 2026

I’ve had three separate conversations this week with clients who used almost the same phrase: “the market feels different than it did in June.” They’re not wrong. Denver’s numbers for July just came out, and for the first time since early spring, prices across the board actually dipped instead of climbed.

According to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors’ latest Market Trends Report, the median price across the 11-county metro area landed at $605,000 in July, down 1.54% from June. That’s still almost 3% higher than a year ago, so this isn’t a crash. It’s a market taking a breath in the middle of summer, and if you’re buying or selling in Parker, Highlands Ranch, or anywhere else in Douglas County right now, the details matter more than the headline number.

The Overall Numbers Cooled a Little in July

Closed sales came in at 3,667 for the month, down 11.81% from June and 5.68% from July of last year. New listings dropped too, falling 5.32% to 5,447. Active inventory climbed to 13,115 homes, up 2.91% from June, though it’s still 6.29% below where it stood a year ago.

Homes are also taking longer to sell. The median was 21 days on market in July, up from 18 days in June, though still faster than the 24 days it took a year earlier. Sellers are still getting strong offers, an average of 99% of asking price, but that’s down half a point from June. If you want the fuller history of how days-on-market has moved through 2026, I put together a separate breakdown of that trend that’s worth a look alongside this one.

Detached Homes Held Up Better Than Condos

The metro isn’t one market right now. It’s really two. Detached homes, the single-family houses most of my Parker and Highlands Ranch buyers are shopping for, saw their median price slip a little over 2% from June to $660,000, but that’s still up 1.54% from a year ago. Detached prices have been the steadier of the two categories all year.

Attached homes, condos and townhomes, told a rougher story. Their median dropped from $390,000 in June to $380,000 in July, down 2.56% from a year ago. That’s the segment that’s been dragging on the overall numbers since spring, and it’s worth knowing if you’re comparing your own home’s value against “the market” as a single figure. Which market you’re actually in changes the story a lot.

Except the Luxury Condo Market, Which Had a Completely Different Summer

Here’s the part that surprised even me a little. While condos overall softened, the top end of that same category went the opposite direction. Sales of condos priced at $1 million and up jumped 26.09% from June and are up 81.25% year over year, with 29 of those sales closing in July compared to 23 in June and just 16 a year ago.

A lot of that momentum is coming from projects like the Cherry Creek neighborhood’s Waldorf Astoria residences, where more than 70% of the 37 planned condos are already spoken for while the building is still under construction, with remaining units priced from $4.7 million to over $10 million. A penthouse at 155 Steele Street reportedly sold in just five days for $5.4 million, $150,000 over its asking price. Year to date through July, the broader $1 million-plus market has closed 3,569 sales worth $5.83 billion, the strongest luxury performance the metro has seen since 2022, according to the same DMAR report. For context on how that mid-year luxury momentum was already building before July, I wrote about it in my mid-year luxury market update.

What This Split Market Actually Means If You’re Buying or Selling

If you’re a buyer right now, especially outside the luxury tier, this is one of the more patient markets I’ve seen in a while. Inventory is building, days on market are stretching out, and sellers are adjusting their expectations rather than holding firm on price the way they were a couple years ago. That doesn’t mean you’ll find a steep discount everywhere, but it does mean you have more room to negotiate, ask for concessions, and not feel rushed into an offer you’re not comfortable with.

If you’re selling, especially a condo or townhome, pricing accurately matters more than it did in spring. I’ve been telling my Douglas County sellers the same thing all summer: homes that are priced to where today’s buyers actually are still move quickly, and homes priced for June’s market tend to sit and then chase the price down anyway. In my own showings around Parker this summer, I’m seeing buyers take their time comparing two or three homes before writing an offer, rather than feeling pressure to move on the first one they like. That’s a real shift from where we were even a year ago, and it’s changing how I advise both sides of a transaction.

Quick answers

Does a 1.54% monthly price drop mean the Denver market is crashing? No. The median price is still up almost 3% from a year ago, and detached homes, which make up most of the market, are still gaining value year over year. One month of cooling in the middle of summer isn’t the same thing as a downturn.

Should sellers be worried about homes taking longer to sell? Twenty-one days is still fast by historical standards. The bigger factor for sellers right now is pricing the home accurately from day one rather than testing a higher number and reducing later.

Is now actually a good time to buy? It depends on your timeline and what you’re shopping for, but the data supports it for patient buyers. Rising inventory and slower sales outside the luxury tier mean more selection and more negotiating room than the market offered a year or two ago.

Prerna Kapoor | REALTOR® | Luxury Home Specialist
REAL Brokerage | 720-949-5450 | info@prernakapoor.com
CLHMS • RENE • PSA • ABR | International Sterling Society Award Winner

Prerna specializes in residential real estate across Parker, Aurora, Lone Tree, Castle Pines, Highlands Ranch, Cherry Creek, Greenwood Village, and Centennial. She speaks English, Japanese, and Hindi.