Housing Market Update - Northern Colorado (August 2026)
The Market Feels Slower Than the Numbers Say
If you’ve been following the housing market—or even just talking to someone who has tried to buy or sell recently—you might assume home prices are falling.
Honestly, some days it feels that way to us too.
But when we actually dig into the numbers, they tell a somewhat different story.
Mortgage rates remain stubbornly high, buyers are cautious, and homes generally take more effort to sell than they did a few years ago. But across much of Northern Colorado, detached-home prices are holding up surprisingly well.
Fort Collins: Don’t get too excited about that 6.5%
Fort Collins’ median single-family sale price jumped 6.5% in July compared with last year. Sounds pretty great, right?
Well... I wouldn’t read too much into it.
Individual months can bounce around quite a bit depending on which homes happened to sell. When we zoom out, the three-month average shows prices up closer to 3%, while the broader six-month comparison is only about 1% higher than last year.
There’s another piece to the story: more expensive homes are making up a larger share of sales. 31% of Fort Collins sales were above $800,000, compared with 26% last year, and the number of sales above $1.25 million doubled.
The takeaway: Fort Collins home values appear to be appreciating modestly. That's good news—but unfortunately, it doesn't mean everyone's home suddenly gained 6.5%.
Larimer County: Steady as she goes
Larimer County has been remarkably stable.
From May through July, the median single-family sale price increased from approximately $590,000 to $600,000, a gain of just 1.7%.
The higher end of the market is having a particularly strong year, with sales above $1 million increasing about 19% and sales above $2 million more than doubling.
The takeaway: The broader Larimer County market is roughly flat to modestly appreciating, while luxury homes are having a pretty good run.
Weld County: A little softer
Weld County has had a more challenging summer.
Single-family median prices from May through July averaged approximately 3.5% below last year, while closings declined about 11%.
The takeaway: Weld is currently the softer of our two Northern Colorado markets, with modest price declines and fewer homes changing hands.
About those interest rates...
Every so often, mortgage rates dip into the low 6% range—or even briefly into the upper 5s—and you can almost feel the housing market perk up.
Buyers start calling. Listings get more attention. Realtors everywhere get a little more optimistic.
And then rates go right back up.
At some point, we may have to accept that today's rates aren't simply a temporary inconvenience we're waiting to disappear. They continue to be one of the biggest factors affecting affordability and buyer behavior.
Here's an interesting bit of perspective: people who bought homes in 1981 love to remind us that mortgage rates were around 15%. And today's buyers quite reasonably respond, “Sure, but houses aren't $65,000 anymore.”
Turns out, both sides have a point.
For buyers putting 10% down, housing costs in 2026 consume roughly the same percentage of income as they did in 1981—about 36%. With 20% down, it's around 25%.
So no, today's rates aren't 15%. But affordability really is challenging.
Sellers are adjusting before homes sell
Homes in Larimer and Weld counties are ultimately selling for roughly 98–99% of their final list price.
That sounds like sellers are getting almost exactly what they're asking—but there's an important catch.
About one-quarter of listings reduce their price before they sell.
In other words, once sellers adjust to what buyers are willing to pay, homes are selling fairly close to that new price. It's the original asking price that's often proving a little too optimistic.
For sellers, that's one of the biggest changes in this market: pricing correctly from the beginning matters again.
Condos and townhomes are feeling more pressure
The attached-home market is noticeably softer than the detached market.
In Larimer County, attached sales from May through July are down about 10%, with year-to-date median prices down approximately 2.6%.
Weld County is weaker still: attached sales are down roughly 22% over the last three months, and median prices were lower than last year in May, June and July.
Interestingly, this isn't because we're flooded with condos and townhomes for sale. There are actually fewer attached homes on the market than last year. Buyers simply aren't absorbing them as quickly.
So why does the whole market feel worse?
This may be the most interesting part.
For the better part of a decade, we got used to strong appreciation. Then COVID came along and gave us a few truly bizarre years when 20% annual gains somehow became part of the conversation.
Now we're looking at flat to 1–3% appreciation in much of the market, and our brains interpret that as: Something must be wrong.
But the numbers aren't really saying that.
What we're seeing is a much more balanced market between buyers and sellers—something we haven't experienced consistently in more than a decade.
For sellers, that means the days of putting a home on the market and assuming buyers will overlook condition or an ambitious price are mostly behind us. Buyers have choices, and with today's monthly payments, they're paying close attention to value.
For buyers, there's actually some good news: you can be patient. There's generally more room to negotiate, more time to evaluate a home, and less pressure to make compromises simply to win.
Frankly, we're all having to relearn what a more normal housing market looks like.
The bigger picture
There are housing markets around the country dealing with significant price declines and very little sales activity. That's not what we're seeing here.
Northern Colorado certainly isn't immune to affordability challenges or higher mortgage rates, but our market continues to show a lot of resilience.
People still want to live here. Homes are still selling. Buyers and sellers are still making moves.
The market hasn't stopped—it has normalized.
And after the wild ride of the last several years, normal can feel surprisingly abnormal.
If you're curious what all of this means for the value of your own home, I'm always happy to put together a home price report for you. Even if selling is a year or more away, knowing where you stand can be helpful when you're thinking about improvements, timing, or what your next move might look like.
Kelly Renz
970.820.0750 | KellyRenzRealEstate@gmail.com
