Six years ago, a penthouse at 155 Steele Street spent 111 days on the market and sold for $4 million, below its list price. In July 2026, the same unit sold in five days for $5.4 million, $150,000 over asking, according to The Denver Gazette's report on DMAR's July data.
Over the same summer, the metro's median attached-home price fell to $380,000 in July. By September, Denver County condos and townhomes were taking 74 days to sell.
These belong to the same property type in the same city, and the two tiers are moving in opposite directions. The gap comes down to approvals. A buyer financing an ordinary Cherry Creek condo with a conventional loan is buying two things: the unit, and a homeowners association whose budget, reserves and insurance deductible have to pass the project review their lender runs. More and more, that second purchase is what sets the price of the first.
The Top of the Market Is Selling Buildings That Don't Exist Yet
At the high end, Cherry Creek is selling on brand and address years before anyone moves in.
PMG broke ground on Waldorf Astoria Residences at 185 Steele St. in November 2025. It's a 37-unit building that BusinessDen reported was expected to be finished in early 2028. By August 2026, more than 70% of the homes were presold. The eight that remained were priced from $4.7 million to more than $10 million, the Gazette reported.
Then on October 29, Four Seasons announced Cherry Creek, A Four Seasons Private Residence. It's planned as an eight-story building at 215 Detroit Street with 42 one-, two- and three-bedroom homes ranging from 1,260 to 6,000 square feet. The developer is a consortium of Wexford Real Estate Investors, Stillwater Capital, Zabel Investment and Denver-based Brue Baukol. 10 Design is the architect and Tihany Design is doing the interiors. Mile High CRE noted that pricing and construction timing haven't been released. It will be Four Seasons' first standalone residential project in Colorado, with concierge, housekeeping, in-residence dining and valet service run by a dedicated on-site team.
Michelle Schwinghammer, who covers the over-$1 million segment for DMAR's Market Trends Committee, counted 29 attached-home sales above $1 million in July 2026, up from 16 in July 2025. DMAR's September report shows year-to-date sales of attached homes above $2 million up 11.11%.
Below That Tier, Condos Sit Longer Than Houses
Denver County's September 2026 figures from the Colorado Association of Realtors show how far apart the two property types have moved:
| Denver County, September 2026 | Single-family | Townhouse/condo |
|---|---|---|
| Median sale price | $700,000 | $345,444 |
| Change from September 2025 | +9.2% | -17.8% |
| Days on market | 43 | 74 |
| Months of supply | 3.6 | 7.9 |
| Percent of list price received | 98.5% | 97.5% |
That 17.8% drop is one month with only 191 sales. Through September, the year-to-date condo median is down just 1.6%. Supply and time on market are the steadier signals. With almost eight months of inventory, a condo seller is competing with a lot of other listings, and the houses in the same county are selling roughly a month faster.
CAR gave a direct explanation for that in its September statewide release, saying "rising HOA fees, insurance costs, and affordability challenges continue to weigh heavily on attached housing." Those HOA fees and insurance costs also show up in the project review that most financed buyers' lenders have to run.
The Approval That Never Shows Up on a Listing
When a buyer finances a condo with a conventional loan that Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac will buy, the lender usually has to review the whole project as well as the buyer. Both agencies waive that review for some detached condos and certain small projects, but an ordinary established building gets reviewed. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide and Freddie Mac's Guide Section 5701.5, both updated for August 2026, set out what the review checks. Among the requirements:
- The HOA budget has to put at least 10% of assessment income toward replacement reserves, or rely on a compliant reserve study.
- Freddie Mac requires adequate funding for the association's insurance deductibles.
- No more than 15% of units can be 60 or more days delinquent on regular or special assessments.
If a reserve study is used in place of the 10% test, it must be no more than 36 months old, done by an independent expert, and the budget must fund the highest recommended contribution.
A building that fails can be marked "Unavailable" in Fannie's system. Fannie's guide says a project with that status is ineligible, and a project-review waiver doesn't change that. On August 3, 2026, both agencies retired their lighter review options for established projects. Fannie dropped Limited Review and Freddie Mac dropped Streamlined Review. More condo loans now go through the full set of checks above.
A unit in a building that passes can be sold to anyone with a conventional loan, while one in a building that fails is priced by the smaller pool of buyers who can close without that loan. Two units in the same neighborhood with the same finishes can sell for different amounts because of a budget line neither seller ever looked at.
Insurance Moved the Pass Line
Insurance has been the hardest of those tests to meet. The Colorado Division of Insurance's HOA insurance toolkit describes master-policy costs rising 200% to 500% and deductibles going from 5% to 10%. It also warns that a 10% deductible can push a project outside some traditional loan parameters and get in the way of purchases and sales.
A higher deductible becomes a cash problem after the next big storm. On November 1, 2026, The Denver Post reported on special assessments in Aurora-area communities. At Peachwood, a townhome owner was told to pay a $7,000 special assessment because every building needed a new roof after a May 2024 hailstorm and the association didn't have the cash to cover its insurance deductible. Soaring Eagles assessed $20,700 per home after a hail claim, and Brookstone assessed $15,000 per unit after its 5%-per-building deductible came to more than the insured damage. None of those communities are in Cherry Creek. They do show what the deductible-funding test is meant to catch.
Freddie Mac adjusted part of its rule this year. Bulletin 2026-C keeps a 5% maximum per-occurrence master-policy deductible. Starting July 1, 2026, it replaced the old 5%-per-unit cap with a $50,000-per-unit cap and added HO-6 coverage requirements for borrowers. So a building with a per-unit deductible may now pass a test it would have failed last year. That depends on how the policy is written, so the insurance declarations page matters as much as the premium.
January 4 Raises the Bar Again
The same Freddie Mac bulletin sets the next change. For mortgages with applications received on or after January 4, 2027, the minimum replacement-reserve allocation goes from 10% to 15% of annual budgeted assessment income. That's about seven weeks after this post goes up. An HOA that clears 10% today with little room to spare would need to raise dues or rewrite its budget to clear Freddie's new minimum. Higher dues mean a lower loan amount a buyer qualifies for at the same income.
Colorado has also begun requiring this kind of planning for new buildings. HB26-1099, effective August 12, 2026, requires developers of new condominiums and planned communities to commission and pay for an independent 30-year reserve study before they hand control to the HOA. The law doesn't apply to existing associations. The Colorado Division of Real Estate says existing HOAs still aren't required to do a reserve study, though they must have a policy on reserve studies. Buildings that come after the Waldorf Astoria and the Four Seasons start out with long-range reserve planning required by law. Older Cherry Creek buildings get no such requirement, and their buyers carry whatever their budgets left undone.
What the Headline Ratio Leaves Out
Sellers usually ask first about price, and condo sellers usually hear 97.5% of list price received. CAR's Denver County report has a footnote under that number: it "does not account for seller concessions."
Across the seven-county metro in September 2026, 80% of sales involved a price reduction, seller concessions, or both. In the same CAR release, Denver Realtor Cooper Thayer reported that listings with a price reduction spent a median 68 days on market, compared with nine days for listings without one. After concessions, reduced listings netted about 8.3% below their original asking price, compared with 1.7% below for the rest. DMAR committee member Christina Ray made the same point in the September Market Trends report. She wrote that buyers may be "negotiating value through closing-cost credits, rate buydowns, repairs or other concessions rather than through purchase price alone."
For an ordinary Cherry Creek condo, that discount and the project review are tied together. A building that passes cleanly can be priced to sell in the first few weeks. A building that is close to failing, or has an assessment coming, often ends up on the 68-day track, where most of the discount happens.
A Few Common Questions
Can a buyer see the HOA's budget and insurance before making an offer? Not necessarily. The Colorado Division of Real Estate says prospective buyers have no general right to association documents before signing the state purchase contract. Once under contract, they are entitled to the association documents listed in Section 7 of that contract. That makes the document review deadline in the contract one of the most important dates in a condo deal.
Does "Unavailable" mean a unit can't be sold? No. It means Fannie Mae won't buy the loan. Cash buyers and other loan types are still possible, but that is a smaller pool of buyers.
Does a Fannie Mae lookup that shows "no findings" mean a building is approved? No. Fannie's Condo Status Finder says a "no findings" result does not mean Fannie has reviewed or approved the project.
This post is general information, not legal, financial or lending advice. Lender rules and HOA documents differ by building and by loan, so confirm your own situation with your lender, attorney or insurance professional.
If you own a condo in Cherry Creek and want to know where your building stands before January 4, or you're comparing condo buildings and want help reading their budgets before you're under contract, Linkow Baltimore Team can go through the reserves, the deductible and the comparable sales with you. Start with a Free Home Valuation.
