The number of transactions is waning as the supply of homes for sale declines, but buyers continue to pay record-setting prices for high country homes
The blistering pace of home sales in Colorado’s mountain communities is slowing. Finally.
After sales volume and prices more than doubled in Colorado’s high country valleys between 2019 and 2021, the number of home sales in six Colorado mountain counties declined through May compared with the same period in 2021. And while prices remain sky-high, there are signs that the buying frenzy that spiked prices to all-time highs may be waning.
Could this be a plateau for a red-hot real estate market that shattered records in Colorado mountain towns in 2021? It’s not looking like the funny-money housing market collapse of 2008, but more of a slow deflation as the number of homes available for sale falls after nearly two years of frantic buying and selling.
Jim Renshaw, the vice-president of Land Title Guarantee Co., which has 50 offices around the state, started seeing a slowdown in deals a couple months ago.
“While the number of transactions are diminishing, the purchase price of the properties is still increasing, especially in those markets where property is finite,” Renshaw said, describing how mountain-town home builders are so backed up that buyers sometimes must wait several years to build a new home on vacant land, which makes existing homes “more desirable and expensive.”
Here’s the latest from Land Title Guarantee Co. This is the total sales volume and number of transactions through May this year compared with the same period in 2021.
Eagle County = $1.59 billion and 677 transactions vs. $1.44 billion and 1,051 transactions
Grand County = $430.3 million and 691 transactions vs. $409.4 million and 789 transactions
Pitkin County = $1.69 billion and 309 transactions vs. $1.49 billion and 501 transactions
Routt County = $584.1 million and 736 transactions vs. $656.6 million and 855 transactions
San Miguel County = $547.6 million and 295 transactions vs. $604.8 million and 393 transactions
Summit County = $932.9 million and 708 transactions vs. $975.2 million and 1,053 transactions
Total for 2022 = $5.77 billion and 3,416 transactions vs. $5.58 billion and 4,642 transactions
But even with the slowdown in transactions relative to 2021, prices through 2022 are setting records, keeping overall sales volume high.
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