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Market Update, Colorado
Median price at $540,000, closed sales down 15.1 percent, and mortgage rates back at 7.40 percent. Here is what the latest Colorado housing market data means if you own a rental.
The Colorado housing market went into the fall of 2026 with a problem that is easy to misread. Prices barely moved, but the number of homes actually changing hands fell off a cliff. The Colorado Association of Realtors counted 6,526 closed sales statewide in September 2026, down 15.1 percent from September 2025, while active inventory was also down 2.7 percent. Fewer homes for sale and far fewer homes selling is not an oversupply story. It is a demand story, and with the 30-year fixed mortgage rate back at 7.40 percent it is a story that runs straight through the Colorado rental market.
The short version: Colorado home prices slipped 1.6 percent year over year in September 2026 while closed sales fell 15.1 percent, sellers are now closing deals with price cuts and concessions rather than at the asking price, mortgage rates at 7.40 percent put principal and interest on the median priced home more than $1,100 a month above the average apartment rent, and that gap is what keeps Colorado renter demand deep even as headline rents drift down.
The three headline numbers are in the boxes above. Here are the remaining metrics that shape the picture. The Colorado Association of Realtors and Redfin compile different data sets and publish on different schedules, so every figure below is labeled with its source and its reference month and the two are never combined.
| Metric | Latest reading | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Closed sales, statewide (Colorado Association of Realtors) | 6,526 (September 2026) | Down 15.1 percent year over year |
| Pending contracts, statewide (Colorado Association of Realtors) | September 2026 | Down 10.9 percent year over year |
| Active inventory, statewide (Colorado Association of Realtors) | 34,824 properties (September 2026) | Down 2.7 percent year over year |
| Single family median (Colorado Association of Realtors) | $575,000 (September 2026) | Down 0.9 percent year over year |
| Condo and townhome median (Colorado Association of Realtors) | $395,000 (September 2026) | Down 7.1 percent year over year |
| Denver metro sales with a price reduction (Colorado Association of Realtors) | Nearly 49 percent (September 2026) | Up from roughly 37 percent in June 2026 |
| Homes for sale, statewide (Redfin) | 38,950 (August 2026) | Up 0.7 percent year over year |
| Homes sold above list price, statewide (Redfin) | 19.9 percent (August 2026) | Up 1.6 points year over year |
| Months of supply, statewide (Redfin) | 4 months (August 2026) | Unchanged year over year |
| 30-year fixed mortgage rate (Freddie Mac) | 7.40 percent (October 15, 2026) | Unchanged from the prior week, up from 6.27 percent a year ago |
The Colorado Association of Realtors put the Colorado median home price at $540,000 in September 2026, down 1.6 percent from September 2025. The year-to-date statewide median was virtually unchanged at $549,000, which is the more useful number for an owner deciding whether to sell: 2026 has been a flat year, not a down year, and a single month's median moves with the mix of homes that happened to close.
Underneath the headline the two halves of the market have separated. Single family medians slipped only 0.9 percent, to $575,000. Condos and townhomes fell 7.1 percent, to $395,000, and the association's own commentary points at rising HOA dues, insurance costs and interest rate fatigue as the reason. In the Denver metro the attached market carried 6.4 months of supply against four months for single family homes. If you own a Colorado condo, you are in a materially weaker selling market than your neighbor with a detached house, and that is the clearest argument this year for leasing it instead.
What has really changed is how sales get done. Across the seven-county Denver metro, nearly 49 percent of September closings involved an asking-price reduction, up from roughly 37 percent in June, about 64 percent included seller concessions, and 80 percent involved one or the other. Homes that cut their price sat a median of 68 days against nine days for homes that did not. Prices look stable on the surface precisely because sellers are absorbing the difference in cuts and concessions rather than in the headline median.
Redfin city stat cards, all four on the same rolling three months ending September 2026. Arrow shows change year over year. Loveland was down 0.048 percent, shown as flat. Estes Park is not charted because Redfin still reports it on the three months ending August 2026 and mixing windows would be misleading.
Rent: RentCafe statewide apartment average, September 30, 2026, buildings of 50 or more units. Owning: principal and interest on the $540,000 Colorado Association of Realtors September 2026 median, 20 percent down, 30 years, at the Freddie Mac rate of 7.40 percent on October 15, 2026 and at the year-earlier rate of 6.27 percent. Property taxes, insurance and HOA dues are not included.
There is an honest problem with the statewide rent number this month and it is worth stating plainly. Zillow's statewide Colorado rental trends page was last updated on May 8, 2026, so its $2,100 figure is five months old and we are not presenting it as current. The average rent in Colorado in the box above comes from RentCafe instead, at $1,859 as of September 30, 2026, down 0.68 percent from $1,871 a year earlier. That series covers apartments in buildings of 50 or more units, so it sits below an all-property-type average and is not interchangeable with a Zillow number. Zillow's city pages are current and we use those for the market table below.
Softening rents are not the same as softening demand. Principal and interest alone on the median priced Colorado home is now $2,991 a month, about $1,132 more than the statewide apartment average, and that is before property taxes, insurance, HOA dues or a single repair. A household that would have bought in a 6 percent rate environment is renewing a lease instead. For an owner that shows up as steady occupancy and weak pricing power at the same time, which is an uncomfortable combination to manage but a far better one than the reverse.
The spread between Colorado markets is wide enough that a statewide number cannot price a specific unit. Boulder runs far above the state, Loveland and Colorado Springs run below it, and in the mountain towns there is no conventional rent series at all. Price against your own submarket.
| Market | Average rent | Source and date | What owners should note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boulder | $2,850 | Zillow, Oct 18, 2026 | Treat this one with care. Zillow's own trend chart for the same page shows roughly $2,370 for October, so the headline average is being pulled up by a thin tail of very expensive listings. University demand remains the reliable part of the story |
| Fort Collins | $2,053 | Zillow, Oct 4, 2026 | Up $58 year over year and 2.65 percent above the $2,000 national average, the strongest of the Front Range markets here |
| Aurora | $2,002 | Zillow, Oct 7, 2026 | Down $193 over twelve months, the largest annual drop in this table, with new apartment supply doing the work |
| Denver | $1,995 | Zillow, Oct 18, 2026 | Down $80 year over year and now fractionally below the national average, with 4,555 rentals listed and a cool market rating |
| Colorado Springs | $1,950 | Zillow, Oct 16, 2026 | Up $50 year over year, the only Front Range market here that gained, helped by military and defense employment |
| Loveland | $1,934 | RentCafe, Sept 30, 2026 | Zillow is serving a year-old cache for Loveland, so this is the RentCafe apartment figure and covers buildings of 50 or more units only |
| Estes Park | Not published | Checked Oct 20, 2026 | Neither Zillow nor RentCafe publishes an Estes Park rent average. RentCafe lists it as not available because the town has no buildings of 50 or more units. Price Estes Park units off local comparables, never off a statewide figure |
Break Colorado into its metros and the state stops looking like one market. The Denver housing market is still the strongest on price and the weakest on volume: Redfin recorded a median of $596,716 over the three months ending September 2026, up 4.7 percent year over year, with homes going under contract in a median of 35 days, while the association counted an 18.7 percent drop in seven-county closed sales to 3,660 transactions. Denver is where the gap between a stable price and a difficult sale is widest.
The Colorado Springs housing market is the loosest of the Front Range metros. Redfin put the median at $454,783 for the same window, down 1.1 percent year over year, with 47 median days on market. The association reported September inventory of 4,253 single family and patio homes, up 6.1 percent year over year and a record high for the Pikes Peak region, with almost half of El Paso County listings taking a price cut. For an owner weighing a sale against a lease, Colorado Springs is the clearest lease case in the state.
Northern Colorado sits in the middle and is where most of our Colorado doors are. The Fort Collins housing market posted a Redfin median of $549,738 over the three months ending September 2026, up 0.9 percent, with 50 median days on market. The association's Fort Collins commentary adds the detail that matters: single family new listings fell nearly 20 percent year over year as sellers pulled back, single family median value held at $590,000, and attached values dropped 11.7 percent to $402,500. Loveland was flat on price at $499,762 but its sales count rose 12.4 percent year over year and its share of listings taking a price drop fell 4.8 points, the only improvement of the four metros charted above.
Estes Park behaves nothing like Denver and should never be priced off a Denver average. It is a mountain resort market an hour up the canyon from Loveland, its buyer pool is seasonal and heavily second-home, and Redfin still reports it a month behind the Front Range cities. On the three months ending August 2026 the Estes Park median was $609,597, down 9.69 percent year over year, which is the steepest decline of any Colorado market on this page, against a Denver median that rose 4.7 percent. Homes took a median of 64 days to sell, 37.2 percent of listings took a price cut, only 3.7 percent sold above list, and the average sale closed about 3 percent below asking. A higher median and a much slower, softer market at the same time is exactly what a resort market looks like when discretionary buyers step back.
The other thing that makes Estes Park its own market is regulation. The town caps residential-zoned vacation home licenses at 322, and under Ordinance 18-25, approved by the Board of Trustees on November 12, 2025 and effective December 14, 2025, the old waitlist was cleared and replaced by a lottery, new applications carry a $200 non-refundable fee, and licenses issued after October 18, 2021 must be held by a named person rather than an LLC or trust no later than the renewal due January 31, 2027. Advertising an unlicensed property is now a violation in its own right. If you own in Estes Park, the license and its transferability are part of the asset, and a long-term lease is often the simpler path. Our Estes Park office at 170 S. Saint Vrain Ave. handles both sides of that decision. Confirm current license terms with the Town of Estes Park before you act on any of it.
Elsewhere in the high country the same pattern repeats with different numbers. The association reported Grand County at 10 months of inventory with a median 75 days on market and homes selling at about 97 percent of asking, Routt County at seven to 10 months, and Summit County single family sales down 25 percent, while luxury sales in Crested Butte and Steamboat Springs held up. Mountain inventory is measured in seasons, not weeks.
Freddie Mac reported the 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 7.40 percent on October 15, 2026, unchanged from the previous week and well above the 6.27 percent of a year earlier. The rate was 7.28 percent on October 1 and 7.03 percent on September 24, so the move up happened fast, and the association's Denver commentary warns that most September closings came from contracts signed before the worst of it. The full effect on Colorado sales volume should land in the October and November data.
The arithmetic is what matters to an owner. On the $540,000 statewide median with 20 percent down, principal and interest at 7.40 percent is $2,991 a month. At last October's 6.27 percent the same loan would have cost $2,666. The rate move alone added $325 a month to the cost of buying the median Colorado home, and the resulting payment sits $1,132 above the statewide average apartment rent. Every month rates stay above 7 percent, the pool of Colorado households who cannot yet buy stays larger than it otherwise would be. That is why a soft rent number does not mean a soft rental business.
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Get Your Free Rental Analysis →It is cooling on volume much more than on price. The Colorado Association of Realtors counted 6,526 closed sales statewide in September 2026, down 15.1 percent year over year, with pending contracts down 10.9 percent, while the statewide median price slipped only 1.6 percent to $540,000 and the year-to-date median was virtually unchanged at $549,000. Active inventory was also down 2.7 percent, so this is weak demand rather than a flood of new listings. What has really changed is how deals close: nearly 49 percent of Denver metro September sales involved a price reduction and about 64 percent included seller concessions.
RentCafe put the average Colorado apartment rent at $1,859 as of September 30, 2026, down 0.68 percent from $1,871 a year earlier. That series covers apartments in buildings of 50 or more units. We are using it because Zillow's statewide Colorado rental trends page was last updated on May 8, 2026 and its $2,100 figure is five months old. Zillow's city pages are current: Denver was $1,995 on October 18, 2026 and Colorado Springs was $1,950 on October 16, 2026.
The Colorado Association of Realtors reported a statewide median of $540,000 for all product types in September 2026, down 1.6 percent year over year, with the year-to-date median virtually unchanged at $549,000. Within that, single family homes had a median of $575,000, down 0.9 percent, while condos and townhomes had a median of $395,000, down 7.1 percent. Redfin, which compiles a different data set on a different schedule, reported a statewide median of $552,599 for August 2026, up 0.5 percent year over year.
Hurting, and by more than they were last month. Freddie Mac reported the 30-year fixed rate at 7.40 percent on October 15, 2026, unchanged from the previous week but well above the 6.27 percent of a year earlier. On the $540,000 statewide median with 20 percent down, principal and interest is $2,991 a month at 7.40 percent against $2,666 at last year's rate, so the rate move alone added about $325 a month. That is the main reason many would-be Colorado buyers are renewing leases instead.
Zillow put Denver at $1,995 on October 18, 2026, Fort Collins at $2,053 on October 4, 2026 and Colorado Springs at $1,950 on October 16, 2026, against a national average of $2,000. Denver is down $80 year over year and Fort Collins is up $58, the strongest of the three, while Colorado Springs is up $50.
They are moving in opposite directions. Redfin reported an Estes Park median of $609,597 over the three months ending August 2026, down 9.69 percent year over year, with 64 median days on market, 37.2 percent of listings taking a price cut and only 3.7 percent selling above list. Denver over the three months ending September 2026 was up 4.7 percent at $596,716 with 35 median days on market. Estes Park is a seasonal mountain resort market with a heavily second-home buyer pool, and the town also caps residential vacation home licenses at 322, so short-term rental supply there is limited by ordinance rather than by demand.
The sources stop short of a forecast, so this is only what they actually say. The Colorado Association of Realtors notes that most September closings came from contracts signed before the sharpest part of the rate increase, so the full effect on sales volume should appear in the October and November data, and its Denver commentary says there is not sufficient evidence for a broad price collapse while inventory stays below last year's levels. Freddie Mac has the 30-year fixed at 7.40 percent as of October 15, 2026, unchanged from the prior week. Anything beyond that would be an invented prediction and we do not publish one.
Sources: Colorado Association of REALTORS, September 2026 Market Trends Housing Report, released October 13, 2026; Redfin, Colorado housing market, August 2026; Redfin city stat cards for Denver, Fort Collins, Loveland and Colorado Springs, all three months ending September 2026, and Estes Park, three months ending August 2026, all read October 20, 2026; RentCafe Colorado average rent, last updated September 30, 2026; Zillow Rental Manager city pages for Denver, Fort Collins, Aurora, Colorado Springs and Boulder, read October 20, 2026 and last updated between October 4 and October 18, 2026. Zillow's statewide Colorado page was last updated May 8, 2026 and is not used; Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, October 15, 2026; Estes Park vacation home license rules as reported by the Estes Valley Voice, January 5, 2026, covering Town of Estes Park Ordinance 18-25. Colorado Association of REALTORS and Redfin medians come from different data sets and are reported separately throughout, never combined. Figures are the most recent published readings as of October 20, 2026 and are provided for general information, not investment advice.
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