DENVER — The Denver metropolitan area’s median home sale price eased to $568,000 in February, down 3.4 percent from the same month a year ago, according to data from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors — a modest cooling that analysts say offers little practical relief for first-time buyers, who face a combination of still-elevated prices, shrinking affordable inventory, and insurance costs that have increased dramatically across much of the metro.
The modest price decline has not translated into more accessible entry points. Homes priced below $400,000 — the threshold that most housing economists consider attainable for households earning around Denver’s median income — represented only 8 percent of February’s active listings, a share that has fallen every year since 2019 and is less than half what it was in 2017.
Neighborhoods that once offered relative affordability for first-time buyers — Westwood on the southwest side, Montbello in the far northeast, and Barnum near Federal Boulevard — have all seen median prices climb above $450,000 over the past three years, pushed up partly by investors and partly by buyers priced out of closer-in neighborhoods like Wash Park, Berkeley, and Park Hill.
“The neighborhoods where people used to be able to get their first house have already been priced out of the first-time buyer range,” said [Name], a Denver real estate broker who specializes in working with first-time buyers. “Now we’re helping people look in Aurora, in Commerce City, in places where they don’t necessarily want to live just because that’s where they can qualify.”
Homeowner’s insurance has emerged as a significant new variable in affordability calculations. Several major insurers have reduced their Colorado exposure following wildfire losses, and buyers in the metro’s western suburbs and foothills communities have seen annual premiums double or triple since 2022. Some lenders are now requiring larger reserves at closing to account for elevated insurance costs, effectively raising the cash requirements for buyers already stretched by down payment demands.
The Denver Housing Authority’s down payment assistance program — which provides up to $15,000 in forgivable loans for income-qualified buyers — logged a 40 percent increase in applications in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period last year, a figure that program administrators say reflects both the growing awareness of available assistance and the degree to which buyers need help that they didn’t a few years ago.
Total active listings in the Denver metro stood at approximately 7,200 in February, up 18 percent year-over-year — a meaningful improvement in supply that has given buyers more negotiating leverage and reduced the frequency of bidding wars compared to the peak market years of 2021 and 2022. But for buyers at the lower end of the price spectrum, the inventory gain has been concentrated in the $600,000-and-above range, where the supply improvement has been most pronounced.
The spring selling season, which historically sees the largest inventory increases, is expected to add more listings beginning in late March. Whether that translates into price relief at the entry level will depend heavily on whether sellers in Westwood, Barnum, and similar neighborhoods decide this is the year to move.