In Denver, a real estate market that’s a mile high : Bidding wars, often with California transplants, are pushing up prices as much as 2% a month.

Andrea Green was emotionally spent after being outbid on a fourth home in this city’s red-hot housing market. When she saw No. 5, she was determined to have it, no matter the cost.

After a five-minute inspection, Green and her agent hurriedly wrote an offer, wary of a competitor--a woman who had also been aced out on house No. 4 the night before--writing her own bid in a car parked outside.

Green clinched the deal the same afternoon last June, but she winces when asked how much more she paid than the asking price of $157,500 for the 1920s bungalow in Washington Park.

“It was like going through childbirth or something--I’ve blocked the whole thing out of my mind, it was so painful,” said the 32-year-old designer and sales manager for a small Denver clothing maker. “Here I was, offering $2,500 over asking price!”

Read it and weep, homeowners in California, where once rock-solid real estate values have fallen an average of 5% statewide in two years--and as much as 30% in high-priced areas such as Newport Beach.

In the Denver region, homes are so sought after that prices have jumped sky-high over the same period. In the university town of Boulder, home values climbed 18% last year. In the rapidly gentrifying Washington Park area of southeast Denver, appraisers say bidding wars have pushed prices up 2% a month.

The market is so superheated in the Mile High City that real estate agents, inspectors and legions of home-repair workers are busy seven days a week. Prospective buyers rushing to advertised “open houses” are finding that nine out of 10 homes are already sold.

Sellers, meanwhile, have become so cocky that many are routinely refusing to make basic repairs to close a deal--things like golf-ball-size holes in roofs, old and frayed wiring, even water-damaged foundations. Dropping the price is out of the question.

“It’s too bad for the buyer, because Buyer B is right behind you and is willing to take it that way,” said Shelley Bridge, a Denver real estate agent who in 1993 had her best sales year in more than a dozen years in the business.

Denver residents often blame the soaring prices on the influx of immigrants arriving in Colorado since 1991--including 33,000 Californians, many armed with bundles of cash from selling higher-priced homes.

Green, who moved from the San Francisco Bay Area three years ago, lost her first bid on a house to a Californian with cash in hand. House No. 4 went to a California couple that bid $5,500 over the $149,500 asking price for a three-bedroom, one-bath bungalow.

But that’s only part of the story, say real estate and regional economic experts.

“The thing that has really caused our market to explode is the existing resident who is selling, cashing out nice equities and buying back into the local housing market,” said broker Duke Fyffe, who sold 100 homes with a total value of $16 million in 1993. “Because of low interest rates, they’re getting a lot more house for the same monthly payment.”

In certain areas, particularly the established tree-lined neighborhoods within minutes of downtown Denver, the demand for vintage homes far outstrips the supply. Which explains why some sellers are getting as many as five and six bids--usually full price or more--the day their “For Sale” signs go up.

For the losing bidders--and their agents--there are often bruised feelings and jangled nerves.

Last year was the most financially rewarding of her 14 years in the business, but broker Judy Wolfe said it was also the most taxing.

“It’s because of the pressure of knowing that every time you show a house these days, your buyer has no time to make rational decisions, no time to really look over a place,” Wolfe said.

Deborah Carter has seen tough times at both ends. When her husband was transferred from California to Denver by his company in December, they sold their Contra Costa County home at a loss.

“If I hadn’t been a real estate agent myself and my husband’s company hadn’t picked up closing costs at both ends,” they would have lost much more, she said.

Reluctant to get stuck again, she searched for a home in the suburbs, offering below the asking price for a four-bedroom, three-bath home in Englewood, about 15 minutes southeast of Denver. The seller snapped up the offer of almost $200,000 on the 15-year-old fixer-upper.

Now Carter is itching to get back in the real estate game.

“I have to tell you, it’s nice to move into a hot market.”