The toughest game in town right now is finding a home that’s priced for younger buyers wanting to climb onto the homeownership ladder, like their parents and grandparents had done decades ago.

“It’s much more difficult for younger buyers to get into the market now,” said MileHiModern agent Brandy Pfalmer. “I’m finding the age of a first-time buyer is much higher.” She typically handles the seller side of a transaction, but this week she played buyer’s agent for a young couple planning to marry this fall.

“Can’t find that price now…”

That typical starter home price in Colorado is now about $400,000, but the pair wanted better than that sum could fetch. “You can’t find that price now around Denver,” said Pfalmer — adding that the couple’s chosen search area of Parker, with a popular Mainstreet shopping/dining district and lots of amenities, made that less likely still.

Making the challenge tighter still, prices have continued to climb around the metro area, even as the market remains relatively slack — and interest rates have given no ground for three months.

“These first-time buyers can’t get in with those rates,” Pfalmer said. But despite the tighter market, buyers want to find something with few projects waiting and first-time buyers are no exception. To make a purchase happen, Pfalmer said, the pair lived with parents, saving rent money toward a down payment. When the search began two weeks ago, Pfalmer showed them 10 homes, from Castle Rock to Southeast Aurora.

Meanwhile, Re/Max Professionals agent Landon Bellum and his wife had bought their own starter house in Parker in the pandemic year of 2021 — three bedrooms, three baths, just over 1,600 square feet, in a newer subdivision west of Parker’s Pinery neighborhood. “It was a very competitive market, and it was pretty dilapidated at the time,” Bellum recalls. “We had our first kid in it.”

The plan was open and well lit, but the pair also spent time fixing it up — new gutters, roof and garage door, new landscaping, new paint indoors and out, new carpet and fixups to the primary and its bath. In 2024 the Bellums moved up, but held onto the house and rented it out and this summer put it on the market, where Pfalmer’s buyers found it last week.

That home at 6672 Fonder Drive in Parker went under contract this week at $505,000. “We got pretty darn lucky,” Pfalmer recalled.

The Bellums made a $10,000 seller concession that Pfalmer arranged with her buyers to go toward buying down the interest rate — something she estimates knocked several hundred dollars off their estimated monthly payment. Was there room for negotiation? Not much, Pfalmer said. A second offer had been made by a competing buyer.

Pool and trail system

Now Pfalmer’s couple is headed into a neighborhood with a pool and trail system close at hand, and a house with a covered patio ready for entertaining, beside a yard with mature trees.

“I’m proud of anybody under 25 that is able to buy now,” Pfalmer said, expecting a closing next week.

ABOUT THIS HOME:

WHERE: 6672 Fonder Drive, Parker. Take Parker Road south from Mainstreet, five miles to Old School House Road, turn west.

SIZE: 3 bed/3 bath, 1,682 sq. ft., 2-car garage  SOLD PRICE: $505,000 WEB:  GrahamGroupDenver.com AGENT: Brandy Pfalmer, 303-968-0731