A report from the Denver Post in Colorado. "Sellers have remained in firm control of metro Denver’s housing market for four years, with inventory shortages, quick sales and escalating home prices par for the course. The imbalance has lasted for so long, it is hard to remember what a more balanced market looks like. But agents warn that things are finally moving in that direction. 'In comparison to the last four years it feels foreign,' said Kerron Stokes, a broker with Resource Group at REMAX Leaders in Centennial."

"In June, metro Denver’s housing market began to show signs of cooling after a hot run at the start of the year. More sellers had to drop their asking prices, fewer buyers attended showings and made offers, and homes took longer to sell. From record highs reached in May and June, prices have come down 4.9 percent."

"Some wrote that off as the usual seasonal slump coming early. Things would rev up again in January. repeating the pattern of recent years. But in September, home sales fell hard despite a lot more properties on the market."

"That disproved a common explanation that a lack of inventory was what was holding back home sales in metro Denver."

"'The amount of showings per listing is dropping. The days on market are increasing. It is telling us that there are fewer buyers and less activity,' said Steve Danyliw, chairman of the market trends committee at the Denver Metro Association of Realtors."

"Last month, there were 3,989 single-family homes and condos sold in metro Denver, a drop of 28.9 percent from August and 20.2 percent from a year earlier. The last time so few homes sold in a September was back in 2012, according to DMAR."

"The inventory of homes available for sale shot up 7 percent from August to 8,807, the highest number available since the fall of 2013, when the Denver market was starting to take off. Normally, the number of homes available for sale drops slightly in September."

"One of the hardest tasks agents say they face now is convincing sellers, long accustomed to calling the shots, to lower their expectations, especially when it comes to how much money they can get."

"Robin Olsen learned first-hand when she and her husband tried to sell their Sunnyside home this summer. Going in, Olsen said her reference point was a friend who listed an old, small and unrenovated home near the University of Denver. Within hours, a buyer made a cash offer, sight unseen, at $90,000 above the asking price."

"'I am hearing the story and thinking this will happen to me. It won’t be on the market for more than a few hours,' she said."

"Although the home, listed initially at $669,000, received lookers, no offer emerged after 72 hours. Olsen couldn’t understand why a home in Denver’s popular northwest corner wouldn’t fly off the shelf."

"Two price drops brought the listing down to $629,000, a price that drummed up more interest and helped land a buyer nearly three weeks later. Through it all, Olsen said she repeatedly had to remind herself to breathe deep, stay calm and realize it was only a business transaction."

"'It was almost three weeks and to me that felt like three years relative to the stories we heard,' she said. 'It was definitely emotional. There were some days I needed to go for a walk.'"

"Lisa Huntington-Kinn, the agent who handled the listing, credits the Olsens for listening to her and moving quickly to drop the price when the offers weren’t showing up. Some sellers are more stubborn. 'Buyers always determine what your house is worth. It doesn’t matter what I think it is worth and what you think it is worth,' she said."

"'We have gone from that insane crazy marketplace to not so insane or crazy,' Danyliw said. But that has left sellers befuddled, asking what happened to our hot market."