Overview:
Even though home prices in Denver are still higher than the national average, the cooling housing market gives buyers new negotiating power.
When Hailey Basch and her fiancé, Nate Fogal, recently walked into an open house in Denver to begin the search for their perfect home, they didn’t know it was also the perfect time to buy.
“There wasn’t a ton of inventory, but stuff was definitely sitting,” Basch said. “So we didn’t feel like we needed to be in that big of a rush until we found the perfect house.”
The couple moved to Denver nearly four years ago to be near friends they met in college and Semester at Sea. Recently, they decided that the uncertainty of renting was no longer for them.
“At one point, Nate was in an apartment and they increased his rent by over $400 in one year,” Basch said. “So, you know, the instability of that is a little nerve-racking.”
The couple started their search with open houses but weren’t sure where to go from there. Eventually, they ran into Christian Thompson, a realtor and owner of Green Door Living Real Estate, who sponsors Bucket List Community Cafe. His community knowledge, attitude and market knowledge drew them in, and they started the hunt together.
“We really liked Christian because he seemed really knowledgeable,” Basch said. “We trusted him and he made the process really, really easy.”
Through conversations with Thompson, Basch realized that the current Denver housing market wasn’t the same crazy field from the last few years. After years of heavily favoring sellers over buyers, and now the other way around, the market has just begun to rebalance.
According to Redfin, as of October 2025, the median house sale in Denver is around $614,000, which is still higher than the national average, but overall sales are down 11.5%. Interest and mortgage rates are declining, and as of November 2025, what used to sit for 56 days on average now sits for approximately 70 days, with prices reduced by more than 50%.
The fact that homes aren’t selling at the same rate as before and that sellers outnumber buyers in the market gives buyers the negotiating power that Basch experienced.
“We saw that it was a buyer’s market and starting to swing even more into a buyer’s market,” Basch said. “We knew we had more room for negotiation.”
Thompson has watched this shift up close. “For the last two years, the market has been transitioning from a very high-demand seller’s market, with low inventory and strong buyer demand, to more of an even market with more inventory, more homes for sale and softer demand,” he said. “Sellers are sitting on the market longer and need to be competitive with price reductions, concessions and inspection repairs.”
For Basch’s search, they looked at multiple homes, which helped them narrow down the specifications and neighborhoods that they wanted. Ultimately, they chose the first house they looked at. After some Zillow stalking, they found out that it was a pre-foreclosure situation, meaning the homeowner was behind on mortgage payments, so they would have even more room to negotiate.
“I watched the price go down over 100 grand over a period of two weeks,” Basch said. “That’s when I decided to reach out to Christian. I was like, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ I haven’t seen this happen.” Thompson added, “I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and they got the best deal I’ve seen in the last 15 years.”
They paid $515,000 for a historic 1890s Victorian home in the exact neighborhood they wanted. An identical house next door sold for nearly $760,000 the year prior.
“We saw the potential,” Basch said. “It needed a lot of TLC, but we’re hoping it pays off.”
This kind of power hadn’t belonged to the buyer in the past. “Because for the 10 to 12 years before COVID, it was a seller’s market. It was not a balanced market,” Thompson said. “It was crazy. Prices were going up extremely high and quickly, and people were losing out on houses. It was nuts.”
But now, buyers have more supply to select from, so there’s less pressure to rush and settle on a house that doesn’t meet every standard. Thompson says that sellers need to readjust their expectations. Previously, their houses would have flown off the market, but Thompson advises them to be ready to take three to five percent off the asking price.
“Inflation hit everybody; things got much more expensive much more quickly,” Thompson said, slowing buyer activity and pushing sellers to bend more. “It’s the best time to buy a house in 15 years. New buyers should be flexible with their expectations and take advantage of the opportunities provided to them.”
Even as supply expands and bargaining becomes more common, price remains a significant barrier for many citizens. At the same time, high mortgages and rising property prices have significantly reduced affordability. Common Sense Institute calculated that people had to work 50 hours per month a decade ago, as opposed to the 97 hours required today to own a home. Denver’s housing prices are already nearly 30% higher than the national average, making them prohibitively expensive for many residents.
Yet even with these daunting numbers, the current slowdown is creating rare openings for buyers who are prepared and patient. Thompson says that while affordability remains a major challenge, the shift in leverage means that motivated buyers can still find meaningful opportunities, especially when sellers are more willing to negotiate than at any point in the last decade.
“Don’t settle,” Basch said. “Now’s the time to find your perfect home, and you do have room to negotiate. A lot of sellers are willing to meet you in the middle.”
