Why Cherry Creek North's Condo Market Isn't Following the Rest of Denver's

When a buyer finances a condo, the lender reviews the building as well as the buyer. That review got stricter on August 3, 2026. A cash buyer never goes through it, and in Cherry Creek North that difference explains most of what the market data shows.

The Denver Metro Association of Realtors described two very different condo markets in its September 2026 report, published October 3. Across the metro, condos and townhomes had 7.21 months of inventory and a median close price of $365,500, down 6.28 percent from a year earlier. In the same report, the metro's highest-priced attached sale was 500 Adams Street in Cherry Creek North, which closed at $4.3 million in cash. In July, the top attached sale was also in the neighborhood: 155 Steele Street Unit #1117, at $5.4 million in cash. Price explains part of the gap between those numbers. How the buyer pays explains more.

The Building Gets Underwritten Before You Do

Lenders review a condo project's eligibility for Fannie Mae building by building during underwriting. Unresolved critical repairs, inadequate insurance, significant litigation and certain hotel-style or short-term-rental features can make every unit in a project ineligible for Fannie Mae purchase, however good the buyer's credit is. In March 2026, Fannie Mae's Lender Letter LL-2026-03 changed several of the rules behind that review, with deadlines that fall across this year and next:

1. July 1, 2026. The maximum master-policy deductible became $50,000 per unit for loan applications dated on or after this date. The master policy still has to cover at least 100 percent of estimated replacement cost, though roofs no longer have to be insured on a replacement-cost basis.
2. August 3, 2026. Limited Review, the lighter process many established buildings relied on, was retired. Those projects now need a Full Review or, where one applies, a Waiver of Project Review.
3. August 3, 2026. When a lender uses a reserve study to show a building is adequately funded, the HOA's budget now has to include the study's highest recommended reserve contribution. Lenders can no longer use the baseline funding method, which lets a reserve balance approach zero.
4. January 4, 2027. Under Full Review, the minimum reserve allocation rises from 10 percent to 15 percent of the HOA's annual budgeted income.

These changes don't all push the same way. Under a per-unit dollar cap on deductibles, some buildings will qualify more easily and some will have a harder time, depending on how their policies are written. The reserve rules mostly push one way, though: an HOA that has kept dues low by keeping reserves thin now has less room to do so if its buyers want conventional loans.

Buyers can't easily check a building's status themselves. Fannie Mae's Condo Status Finder is open to HOAs, management companies and authorized advisors, not the general public. A "no findings" result means the project hasn't been flagged, not that it has been reviewed or approved. When the Colorado Sun reported in March 2025 that 210 Colorado projects were on Fannie Mae's ineligible list as of that February, third-most in the country, it also found that some buyers learned about a building's problem only after their loan was turned down.

Why Cash Buyers Avoid All of It

A buyer paying $4.3 million in cash has no lender reviewing the building, and none of the dates above apply to them. They also aren't affected by rates. According to DMAR, the 30-year fixed rate rose every week in September to about 7.5 percent by month's end, and the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate in mid-September for the first time since July 2023.

The September report shows how far apart the two groups of buyers have moved:

July pointed the same way. Metro attached homes that month had 4,531 active listings, a median of 40 days on market and nearly 5.7 months of supply. Luxury attached closings rose 81.25 percent year over year, and price per square foot in that tier reached $572, close to its 2022 high. Michelle Schwinghammer of DMAR's Market Trends Committee said the $1 million-plus segment is "buoyed by substantially greater financial flexibility."

These figures cover the whole metro. Allowed public sources don't publish Cherry Creek North figures on their own. Still, the neighborhood produced the metro's top attached sale in both months, and both closed in cash. Those two sales were the clearest local examples of the tier that is holding up.

Dues Lower a Price Before Anyone Negotiates

For buyers who finance, HOA dues come straight out of the budget. In December 2025, a Denver-area broker told Denverite that each extra $100 a month in dues cuts a buyer's mortgage buying power by about $15,000. That loss happens before the price discussion even starts, and it shrinks the group of buyers who can afford the unit at all.

Dues across the Front Range have been rising faster than that rule of thumb would suggest. The Colorado Sun described a 46-townhome Aurora HOA whose insurance premium tripled in one year, pushing dues up more than 60 percent to $525 a month. At Via Varra in Broomfield, the Denver Post reported premiums up threefold or more and dues rising from about $300 to more than $600 a month. In January 2026, a Denver Post editorial said Colorado condo premiums had settled at a persistently high level, with many associations relying on surplus-lines coverage. None of these examples are in Cherry Creek North, and the research turned up no reported special assessments or insurance problems at a Cherry Creek North building. The rising costs are regional, and dues work the same way in any building.

DMAR's September guidance reflects this. It says the attached segment favors buyers who come prepared and sellers who price with HOA fees and insurance costs in mind. Amanda Snitker, who chairs the committee, said rate buydowns, seller-paid concessions and adjustable-rate loans are "all on the negotiating table right now." All of those tools involve financing, so the negotiating room DMAR describes belongs to financed purchases. A cash buyer at the top of Cherry Creek North has no rate to buy down.

The New Supply Is Aimed at Cash Buyers

The condo buildings now planned or under construction in Cherry Creek North add units at the top of the market, not the middle:

• Waldorf Astoria Residences Denver Cherry Creek, 185 Steele Street. Developed by PMG, with 37 units priced from just over $2 million and penthouses above $10 million. The marketer reported 65 percent sold at groundbreaking. A June 2026 Denver Business Journal preview said about 10 residences were still available and delivery remained on track for the first quarter of 2028.
• Four Seasons Private Residences, 200 block of Detroit Street. An eight-story, 42-unit proposal from Stillwater Capital and Wexford Real Estate Investors.
• 2625 E. Third Ave. Nichols Partnership described a likely 20 to 30 condos with retail in January 2026. The four-story condo plan had cleared rezoning by April.

The two branded projects together add 79 high-end units, and the Cherry Creek Alliance's 2025/26 report lists Waldorf's completion as 2028 and Four Seasons' as yet to be determined. No published reporting ties these projects to changes in resale prices. What they show is where developers expect demand to hold up: among buyers who can commit years before move-in and who are least affected by rates.

What to Check in a Cherry Creek North Condo's Paperwork

For a financed buyer, the building's finances can matter as much as the unit itself. Colorado's annual HOA disclosure covers most of what a lender will look at, including:

• The current operating budget
• Regular and special assessments
• The prior year's financial statements and reserve amounts
• Each insurance policy's carrier, limits, deductibles, insureds and expiration date

Timing makes this harder. The Colorado Division of Real Estate says a prospective buyer has no general right to an HOA's governing documents before a contract, so these documents usually come through the transaction itself. A new state law doesn't cover older buildings either. HB26-1099, in effect since August 12, 2026, requires a developer to pay for an independent 30-year reserve study before handing a new condominium over to its association. It doesn't require new studies for existing buildings. For an existing building, the reserve figures in the disclosure, set against Fannie Mae's 15 percent threshold coming in January, are the most useful early sign of how a conventional loan review is likely to go.

A Few Distinct Questions

If a building fails Fannie Mae review, can a buyer still finance a unit? Sometimes. The Colorado Sun reported that buyers in ineligible projects may turn to cash, private or hard-money loans, or FHA or VA financing where those programs separately allow it. FHA eligibility is decided under its own standards, so it has to be confirmed separately for each building.

Does the January 2027 reserve change affect a contract signed this fall? The 15 percent minimum applies to Full Review loan applications dated on or after January 4, 2027, so the application date is what counts.

Is the fourth quarter a good time to buy a condo? DMAR's Amanda Snitker said buyers who stay active through the fourth quarter face less competition than at any other time of year, as listings taper and some sellers pull their homes for the holidays.

If you're financing a condo in Cherry Creek North, The David Bell Group can help you get the HOA disclosure, the reserve figures and the master-policy deductible early in the deal, so your offer accounts for the building's finances as well as the unit.