The Expired Report: 6.5 Denver Metro Listings Expired for Every 10 That Sold

How many Denver Metro listings expired in September 2026? For every 10 homes that sold across the six Denver Metro counties, 6.5 listings expired: 1,857 expired listings against 2,874 closed sales. Two years ago the figure was 3.4.
Download the report and the carousel slides
Everything in this post is ready to hand to a client. No form to fill out.
The six page Expired Report (PDF). Read the report here
The ten slide Instagram carousel, 1080x1350. Download the slides here
The slides are yours to download and share, and the PDF works well in front of a seller who is deciding on a list price. The full breakdown is below.
Every market report tells you what sold. Median price, days on market, list-to-sale ratio. All of it describes the listings that made it to the closing table.
This month I went looking for the other group. I pulled every residential listing that expired in September across Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties from REcolorado and put it next to the closed sales for the same month.
The result is the number I think every Denver listing agent should have ready before the next pricing conversation.
The headline: 6.5 listings expired for every 10 that sold
Here is September, three years running:
September 2024: 1,100 expired, 3,270 sold. That is 3.4 expired for every 10 sold.
September 2025: 1,792 expired, 3,484 sold. 5.1 for every 10.
September 2026: 1,857 expired, 2,874 sold. 6.5 for every 10.
Add the 526 listings that sellers withdrew in September, and 45% of the listings that left the market last month left without a sale.
The longer view says the same thing. In all of 2024, Denver Metro had 11,939 expired listings against 41,099 closed sales, or 2.9 for every 10. Over the last 12 months it was 18,549 against 39,369, or 4.7 for every 10. Sales are down 4%. Expired listings are up 55%.
One note on reading the monthly numbers. December always spikes (9.6 in December 2025) because so many listing agreements are written to end at year end. That is why I compare September to September and not to last month.
Expirations did not surge. Closings fell.
This is the part that changes the conversation. Expired listings were up 4% from last September. Closed sales were down 17.5%.
About the same number of sellers ran out of time. Fewer buyers finished. That is a different problem than a wave of bad listings. A seller's competition is not only the other homes for sale. It is the calendar.
The ratio climbed through the fourth quarter in both 2024 and 2025, and this fall started from a higher base: 6.0 in August against 4.9 a year earlier. If the pattern holds, the next three months are when the most listings run out of time.
Where Denver Metro listings are expiring
By county
Denver: 608 expired, 599 sold (10.2 for every 10 sold)
Douglas: 268 expired, 461 sold (5.8)
Adams: 285 expired, 506 sold (5.6)
Arapahoe: 339 expired, 608 sold (5.6)
Jefferson: 316 expired, 608 sold (5.2)
Broomfield: 41 expired, 92 sold (4.5)
Denver County is the only one where more listings expired than sold. It carries 33% of the metro's expired listings on 21% of its closed sales. Jefferson and Broomfield held up best.
By property type
Condos: 449 expired, 326 sold (13.8 for every 10 sold)
Townhomes: 268 expired, 329 sold (8.1)
Detached homes: 1,139 expired, 2,219 sold (5.1)
The condos that did sell took a median 54 days to go under contract. Detached homes took 28.
By list price
Under $400K: 475 expired, 532 sold (8.9)
$400K to $500K: 249 expired, 490 sold (5.1)
$500K to $600K: 314 expired, 526 sold (6.0)
$600K to $750K: 321 expired, 488 sold (6.6)
$750K to $1M: 253 expired, 421 sold (6.0)
$1M to $1.5M: 134 expired, 219 sold (6.1)
$1.5M and up: 111 expired, 153 sold (7.3)
The $400K to $500K range was the healthiest in the metro. Under $400K was the softest, and 69% of the expired listings in that range were condos.
The finding held everywhere I cut it. No county, property type or price range came in below 4.5, and two years ago the whole metro was at 3.4.
What separated the homes that expired from the homes that sold
I expected the expired listings to be a different kind of house. They were not.
Median size, detached homes: 1,843 square feet for expired listings, 1,840 for homes that sold
Median year built, detached homes: 1993 for both
What was different was the starting price. I compared each listing's price per square foot with the median for September closed sales in the same county, of the same property type, in the same size range.
Homes that sold started about 5% above those comparable sales and ended about 1% above.
Homes that expired started about 10% above and were still about 6% above when the listing ran out.
Twice the gap at the start. And notice how small the numbers are. It did not take a wildly overpriced listing to expire in September.
Here is the caveat I say out loud to every agent I show this to: this is correlation, not proof. Price per square foot is a blunt comparison. It cannot see condition, updates or where a home sits inside a county. Listings also expire for reasons that have nothing to do with price, like access, or a seller who was never going to move at the market number. When I tightened the match to zip code and third quarter sales, the gap narrowed to about 7% against 4%, but it pointed the same direction for every property type. Above $1 million the comparison gets too noisy to rely on.
A price cut alone did not save them
69% of the listings that expired had already reduced the price, by a median of $25,100. They still expired, at a median of 86 days on the market.
Now look at the homes that closed in September:
49% never cut the price. They went under contract in a median 9 days and closed at 100% of original list price.
51% cut the price first. They took a median 67 days and closed at 93% of original list price. Their median cut was $29,800.
If that sounds familiar, it is the same pattern as last month's Sit Tax report. The cost of a high start shows up later, and it shows up bigger.
The part most people will miss: the sold side got better
Compare this September with last September and the homes that sold actually did a little better:
Median days to contract: 32, down from 36
Cut the price before selling: 51%, down from 55%
Closed above list price: 22%, up from 20%
The sold side improved while the expired side got worse. That is a market splitting in two, not a market falling apart. Homes priced where buyers are showing up are moving faster than last year. Homes that are not are running out the clock.
Denver Metro at a glance, September 2026
Closed sales: 2,874 (3,484 a year ago)
Listings expired: 1,857 (1,792 a year ago)
Median close price: $570,000 ($580,000 a year ago)
Median price per above-grade square foot: $340 ($343 a year ago)
Median days to contract: 32 (36 a year ago)
Sales with a seller concession: 65%, with a median concession of $10,000
Cash purchases: 21.6% (19.3% a year ago)
How to use this with a client this week
With a seller
Open with the ratio. "For every 10 homes that sold last month, between 6 and 7 listings expired."
Show both paths. No price cut: 9 days to contract. Price cut first: 67 days.
Use the comparison. The homes that expired were the same size and age as the ones that sold. They started about twice as far above the comps.
If the home is a condo or sits in Denver County, use that number, not the metro one.
With a buyer
Ask for the concession. 65% of September sales had one, at a median of $10,000. What that does to the monthly payment is a question for their lender.
Sort by days on market. Half of the listings that expired had been sitting 86 days or more.
Do not wait on the good ones. 22% of September sales still went under contract in the first week.
With an expired listing
By October 5, at least 385 of September's 1,857 expired listings (21%) were already back on the market, under contract or closed. Most of those sellers still want to sell. Lead with what the data shows about the listings that did sell, not with a pitch.
Grab the report and the slides
Both downloads from the top of this post, one more time, plus what is inside.
The six page Expired Report (PDF). The trend chart back to January 2024, county, property type and price range breakdowns, talking points and the full method notes. Open the PDF
The ten slide carousel. Sized for Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Open the slides folder
As an Account Executive with Chicago Title of Colorado, pulling numbers like these for the agents I work with is one of my favorite parts of the job. The closing table is the last step. The pricing conversation is where most of it gets decided.
If you have a listing sitting and you want to talk through the strategy, or you are looking for marketing ideas to get it in front of the right people, reach out to me.
Frequently asked questions
How many listings expired in Denver Metro in September 2026?
1,857 residential listings expired across Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties, against 2,874 closed sales. That works out to 6.5 expired listings for every 10 homes that sold, up from 5.1 in September 2025 and 3.4 in September 2024.
What does "expired per 10 sold" mean?
It is the number of listings that expired in a month divided by the closed sales in the same month, times 10. It is not a failure rate for one group of homes, because the homes that closed in September mostly went under contract in August and the listings that expired mostly came on the market in the spring and summer. It is a simple way to compare how many listings are leaving the market with a sale and how many are leaving without one.
Which parts of Denver Metro had the most expired listings?
Denver County had 608 expired listings against 599 closed sales, the only county where more listings expired than sold. By property type, condos had 449 expired listings against 326 closed sales. Jefferson County (5.2 for every 10 sold) and Broomfield (4.5) held up best.
Does an expired listing mean the home will not sell?
No. By October 5, at least 21% of September's expired listings were already back on the market, under contract or closed, and that count is a floor. The sellers who cut the price and did sell took a median 67 days to go under contract.
Where does this data come from?
REcolorado MLS residential listings for Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties, pulled October 5, 2026. Listing counts cover all residential listings. Price, timing and concession figures cover detached homes, townhomes and condos. A small number of September closings get entered late, so the sold count may rise about 1%. Full method notes are on the last page of the PDF.
Put me to work
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Jerad Larkin
The Mile High Title Guy
Account Executive, Chicago Title of Colorado
303.630.9430 | Info@MileHighTitleGuy.com
milehightitleguy.com
This content is for general informational and educational purposes only. It reflects my personal opinions and industry experience and is not legal, financial, or tax advice. Real estate laws, title regulations, and market conditions change frequently, so verify independently before making decisions. Based on information from REcolorado, Inc., which does not guarantee and is not responsible for its accuracy.





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