Prices are at record highs. Supplies of mountain homes for sale have never been lower. Across Colorado’s high country, resort community real estate sales have set records since July. Through October, the total real estate sales from six Colorado resort counties are nearly $1 billion greater than all sales last year.
“It’s Biblical,” George Harvey, who has been selling real estate in Telluride for 37 years, said as he described the sales volume in San Miguel County for the last half of 2020.
Sales in Telluride and Mountain Village, which are on pace to surpass $1 billion in sales for the first time ever, are “fear-and-safety purchasing,” he said.
With inventory at the lowest amount he’s ever seen in Telluride and Mountain Village and prices climbing, the scene mirrors the irrationality of 2007, which preceded a collapse and record foreclosures. This time, any correction will be driven by a lack of homes left to sell, Harvey said.
“I was just on a 30-broker Zoom meeting this morning. All from Telluride. And we all said this: We are going to do less business in the next one to two years. Not because of demand, but because we don’t have enough product left to sell,” Harvey said.
Back in 2007, when mountain real estate was humming with sky-high prices in a frenzied market, high country buyers and brokers assumed national problems would not reach isolated resort communities. But the economic collapse, triggered by suspect lending, did reach the mountains, and the real estate market withered in the Great Recession right along with urban markets.
Once again the mountain market is raging. But there are signs that indicate this time around could be different. There aren’t any sketchy financial schemes propping up lending. The pandemic is shifting priorities as a wave of largely urban residents moves to Colorado’s high country. The newcomers are scooping up primary homes, not just vacation getaways, and they are moving in.
“People were playing with funny money in ‘07,” said Gil Fancher, the co-owner of the Vail Real Estate Center. “Now we are seeing people buying because they want to change their life. I do not see us falling off a cliff any time soon.”
Prices are at record highs. Supplies of mountain homes for sale have never been lower. Across Colorado’s high country, resort community real estate sales have set records since July. Through October, the total real estate sales from six Colorado resort counties are nearly $1 billion greater than all sales last year.
Urban migration hits the high countryGrowing waves of urban buyers are scouring the mountains. They started poking around in June and July and swarmed in the fall. September sales volume in Pitkin County, for example, was up 458% from September 2019. October in Eagle County saw sales climb 230% from the previous year. Routt County’s October was up 122%. San Miguel County’s October was up 131%.
The new buyers – mostly from Denver as well as big cities in Texas, California and Florida – are able to work from home and are maybe not as keen on city life as they once were. And they like bigger homes that have office space and room for large families to not just gather, but live.
Mountain real estate markets do not always follow the trajectory of metro Denver. But this year, they are. The Colorado Association of Realtors reported the 12 months up to October showed the greatest price appreciation for Denver homes – up 21.3% – ever tracked by the association.
The robust home market is reflected nationally as well, as mortgage rates hover near historic lows. Since cratering in May, sales of existing homes climbed every month through October compared with the previous year. The National Association of Realtors reported in October that national home sales volume was peaking along with record-high prices and all-time lows in the supply of homes for sale. But the association fretted over peak prices for building materials, like lumber, suggesting that a lack of new homes could sustain the spike in home prices.
Pitkin County, home to Aspen and long the champion of staggering home prices, recorded 268 sales over $2 million this year through September. The number of deals for homes worth $10 million or more is up four times over the same period last year. Through September, sales volume reached $2.4 billion, up more than 30% over all of 2019’s sales.
Reader Comments