Denver ranks high as affordable, fast-sale housing market

Denver ranks in the top 10 in a new evaluation of the nation’s most affordable housing markets.

The Emeryville, Calif.-based online real estate brokerage (Nasdaq: ZIPR) said it compared median home sales prices in U.S. markets to median household income levels.

Denver No. 8 among major U.S. markets for 2013 with a home-price-to-income ratio of 6.31.

 It said the nation’s most affordable housing is in Dallas-Fort Worth, with a price-to-income ratio of 5.27, followed by Houston (5.43) and Minneapolis (5.5).

 At the other extreme is Washington, D.C., with a price-to-income ratio of 16.78, followed by Brooklyn, N.Y. (16.58) and San Francisco (13.81).

In other new residential real estate rankings:

 – Realtor.com, the website of the National Association of Realtors, places Denver among a handful of cities (including Phoenix and Seattle) with the highest recent increases in home list prices coupled with the largest declines in inventory of homes for sale.

 It also says that “median age of inventory” — the typical amount of time a home is on the market before selling” — is at a record low in Denver and Seattle, averaging 28 days, 51 percent lower than a year ago. (Realtor.com’s full report is here.)

– Redfin ranks Denver No. 9 among cities with the most recent “flash sales” of homes in 24 hours or less. The Seattle-based real estate site counted 115 flash sales in the Denver area over a five-month period. Boston Marathon.