September 1–30, 2026 sales · What sold fast, and what to check
September in Overview: Homes Averaged 43 Days. 5 ZIPs Averaged Under 30.
The metro slowed for a second month. Five ZIPs still averaged under 30 days and held their price. All 30 fast homes we checked kept their first asking price.
Previous coverage · August in Overview · September 10, 2026 August in Overview: What 1-Day Sales Tell You to Buy and Fix
The whole market slowed again
| Resale houses, five counties | July | August | September |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houses sold | 2,403 | 1,992 | 1,800 |
| Average days to a buyer | 31.8 | 38.1 | 43.2 |
| Half sold within (days) | 16 | 23 | 25 |
| Sold in 1–7 days | 805 | 526 | 451 |
| Over 60 days | 409 | 436 | 466 |
DOM is the MLS days-on-market count. It roughly tracks time listed before a buyer signed a contract, but for some homes the MLS counts fewer days than the calendar shows. It does not count closing or your repair time.
Some of this may be the season. We don't have last September to compare. Either way, plan for more carrying time this fall than this summer.
The hottest five
How we picked them: the lowest average days on market among ZIPs with at least 15 resales, where the typical home closed at 98% or more of its first asking price. That second rule keeps out areas where homes sold fast but closed well below their first asking price.
| # | ZIP | Resales | Avg DOM | Typical close vs first ask | Where the fast homes were | Read it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aurora 80012 | 18 | 17.6 | 100% | Queensborough, Aurora Hills | One-story houses sold in 3 days |
| 2 | Denver 80239 | 16 | 19.2 | 99.6% | Montbello, Parkfield | Older cabinets, 1–3 days; 2018 kitchen, 35 |
| 3 | Lakewood 80228 | 26 | 20.2 | 98.6% | Green Mountain, Solterra | Two look-alike pairs |
| 4 | Morrison 80465 | 20 | 28.4 | 99.3% | Friendly Hills | Three fast sales, one subdivision |
| 5 | Thornton 80241 | 22 | 29.8 | 100% | Concord | Same street, opposite results |
These are fast-selling areas, not proof of where the most buyers are. Sold homes alone can't measure that. Each ZIP had only 16–26 sales, so treat them as strong clues.
Just missed: Arvada 80003 first ranked fifth. Our house check found its quickest "single-family" sale was really an attached unit. Without it, Arvada averaged 30.3 days, just behind Thornton.
Left out on price: Denver 80206 averaged 24.9 days, but the typical home closed at 96.6% of its first ask. Aurora 80010 averaged 28.1 days at 93.6%. In both, the typical home closed noticeably below its first ask.
Where they sold and what was inside
| ZIP | Where the fast homes were | The fast houses | Kitchens in photos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aurora 80012 | Queensborough, Aurora Hills | 1968–1972, mostly one-story, 912–1,518 sq. ft. above ground | 2 wood, 3 white or painted |
| Denver 80239 | Montbello, Parkfield | 1969–1972 Montbello homes and 2003–2005 one-story homes | 4 wood, 1 cream-painted |
| Lakewood 80228 | Green Mountain, Solterra | 1960s–70s ranches and bi-levels; 2012–2013 two-stories | 3 stained wood, 1 sage-green painted |
| Morrison 80465 | Friendly Hills; two mountain homes | 1970s suburban homes; acreage in Hilldale Pines and Gemspark Estates | 4 wood-tone, 1 white (mountain home) |
| Thornton 80241 | Concord | 1986–1996 homes, plus one 2017 house in Bramming Farms | 2 wood, 2 white or painted, 1 older cream |
Add it up. Of the 24 fast homes bought by people using standard home loans, 15 had wood-tone cabinets: oak, maple, cherry, brown or espresso. 8 had white or painted cabinets, and one had older cream cabinets. One Aurora deed wasn't recorded yet; its MLS record shows a VA loan. We left out one Lakewood sale where the buyer used a private-money loan.
These homes sold fast with wood cabinets in the photos. That doesn't prove wood cabinets sell faster. Before you pay to replace them, test the doors and drawers, check the counters, and look at the floors.
Location showed a pattern too. The fast homes clustered in a few named neighborhoods inside each ZIP. A ZIP average is a starting point. The street and the subdivision are the real comp.
Why every area is new this month
Last month we studied five neighborhoods we'd covered before. This month we asked a different question: where are houses selling fastest right now? So all five areas below are new to our reports. We also checked how our earlier areas did, at the bottom.
What the fast homes shared, and what the slow ones had
1. They kept their first price
We checked 30 fast sales across these areas and the fixer report. All 30 kept their first asking price until a buyer signed. Of the 12 slower homes we compared them with, 11 cut their price.
Be careful with that. A house that sells in two days never has time to cut. So cuts don't prove why a house was slow. But look at how far some slow homes fell from their first price:
- Thornton's redone house on Grape Way: $535,000 asked, $505,000 closed.
- Lakewood's Warren Avenue ranch: $770,000 asked, $715,000 closed.
- Saratoga Avenue fixer (Harriman Park, Morrison mailing address): $635,000 asked, $475,000 closed.
Each of those homes went under contract only after its price came down. A first price set from what similar homes nearby actually sold for is the safer plan.
2. Dated kitchens sold fast at the right price
Several of the fastest sales had kitchens nobody would call new:
- Aurora 80012: a one-bath ranch with oak cabinets and wallpaper sold in 1 day, $25,000 over asking.
- Denver 80239: a Montbello ranch with original-looking brown cabinets sold in 1 day, $20,000 over asking.
- Thornton 80241: an as-is house needing carpet and paint sold in 3 days, $15,000 over asking.
All three went to people using standard home loans: VA, FHA and conventional. (Two are confirmed by deed records; the Aurora deed wasn't recorded yet, but its MLS record shows a VA loan.) So these were homeowners, not flippers. In these areas, an old kitchen didn't stop a homeowner sale when the price was lower. That cuts both ways. If you buy a dated house here, expect competition. If you flip one, check what updated homes nearby actually closed for before you spend.
3. Homeowners bought them
We checked deed records for all 30 fast homes. 23 went to people using standard home loans. One more went to a person paying without a recorded loan, and one deed wasn't recorded yet. The exceptions matter:
- Four fast fixers went to companies (LLCs), and all four were deeded to another company within about two weeks.
- Lakewood's dated 1964 ranch sold in a day, but to a buyer using a short-term private-money loan.
Those prices were paid by companies or with short-term private-money loans, not by homeowners with standard loans. Leave them out when you comp a finished flip.
4. Bigger and pricier often waited
In Aurora and Denver 80239, the slower homes we compared were bigger above ground and asked more than the fast ones. In 80239, one of the slower homes had the newest-looking kitchen we saw. In these comparisons, more square feet and a nicer kitchen didn't come with a faster sale.
Fixers lost their speed
Houses marked "Fixer" were the fastest group all summer. In September it took 18 days for half of them to sell, up from 6 in July. Four of the six that still sold fast went to companies, and each was deeded to another company within about two weeks. Read the fixer report.
How our earlier areas did
Same method, September versus August. These are ZIP-wide averages, broader than the named neighborhoods.
| Earlier report | ZIP | Sept resales | Sept avg DOM | Aug avg DOM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columbine West | 80128 | 23 | 28.7 | 38.0 |
| Denver 80211 | 80211 | 30 | 30.2 | 34.0 |
| Allendale area | 80004 | 28 | 32.2 | 29.2 |
| Aurora Knolls | 80013 | 51 | 32.7 | 16.7 |
| Applewood | 80401 | 23 | 37.3 | 30.6 |
| Barnum–Westwood | 80219 | 24 | 55.0 | 40.2 |
| Littleton 80125 | 80125 | 27 | 67.9 | 43.2 |
| Denver 80216 | 80216 | 6 | 122.7 | 29.0 |
Columbine West and 80211 got faster while the market slowed. Aurora Knolls' average nearly doubled, but half its homes still sold in 11 days or less. One house there took 443 days and pulled the average up. Denver 80216 had only six sales, too few to read.
What to do this month
- Shop these five ZIPs first, and look in the named neighborhoods, not the whole ZIP. A few dozen sales is a strong clue, not a guarantee.
- Price your flip from nearby sold homes on day one. The slow homes we checked mostly ended up cutting anyway.
- Check the street's top sale before you design. Dated kitchens sold fast at lower prices, and nicer ones didn't always sell faster.
- Budget for seller credits. Most sales in these five ZIPs had them. A typical credit ran about $6,200 to $11,500, depending on the ZIP.
- Add carrying time. The metro is slower than it was in July.
Sources and method: We used every July, August and September 2026 closed single-family resale in REcolorado for Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties, leaving out new construction. Average means the arithmetic mean. On October 14, 2026, we checked listing photos and descriptions for 50 homes, including the five areas, the fixer report and Arvada, plus county deed records for 44 of them. "Photos show" is what we saw; "listing says" is the agent's claim. Nothing here measures profit.