EAGLE
COUNTY — The local real estate market continues to strengthen from the depths
of the local and national economic slump, but that recovery can be slow at
times.
Looking at the most recent numbers from Land Title
Guarantee Co., which tracks completed sales recorded with Eagle County, August
was a good example of a decent month. Compared to August of 2013, there were
slightly fewer sales for the same period this year, but those sales generated a
bit more revenue.
AUGUST PART OF TREND
August’s numbers reflect the trend seen so far this
year. Through the first eight months of the year, overall unit sales are down 6
percent from 2013, while sales volume has increased by 28 percent. Those
numbers reflect a couple of trends at work. First, prices seem to be firming up
and increasing somewhat. Second, fewer units selling for more money also
indicates a relative lack of inventory, especially for units priced at $400,000
or less.
LOCATION VS. SIZE
Laurie Slaughter for a number of years has managed the
Gypsum office of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Colorado Properties. Slaughter
said that the market is still a bit soft for homes priced at $400,000 or more.
That could be due to the fact that homes at that price begin to compete with
condos, townhomes and duplexes in the middle of the valley. Those buyers may be
choosing the convenience of location over the extra space available in the
western valley. On the other hand, Slaughter said she’s seeing couples move
into bigger homes in the lower valley once they start having kids or having
more kids.
FEWER HOMES ON MARKET
First-time buyers, though, tend to find better prices
in Eagle and Gypsum. At the moment, though, there just isn’t much on the
market. The foreclosure wave that hit the county between about 2009 and 2012
has crested, so there are fewer homes on the market. The homes that are for
sale are generally more expensive than they were a couple of years ago. While
there’s a good bit of pent-up demand, Slaughter said not much is being built
right now. Some concerted building would probably stabilize prices somewhat,
she said. And prices are driving virtually all of the market these days, from
first-time townhomes to slopeside mansions.
THIS IS THE YEAR
Jim Flaum is a partner and managing broker at Slifer
Smith & Frampton Real Estate, the valley’s biggest brokerage. Flaum said at
the beginning of this year that 2014 would be the year that prices started to
inch up after about six years of declining or flat numbers. Given the Land
Title numbers, that seems to be happening. Flaum said buyers today are still
focused in large part on price. “In the old days (say, 2006), it was more about
the property,” Flaum said. The very high end of the market — from about $2.5
million on up — remains an up-and-down proposition. Those few sales make up a
substantial part of the dollar volume every month. In August, there were six
sales for $2.5 million or more. Just two of those sales — the two averaged
right at $8 million each — accounted for a full 15 percent of the month’s
dollar volume. Flaum said most high-dollar sales come during ski season. But,
he said, after a “so-so” July and a similar August, several of those high-end
sales will wind up in the county’s records in the next couple of months. “We
wrote some pretty nice deals in September — for about $18 million on Rockledge
Road (in Vail),” Flaum said. “It’ll be interesting to see the numbers when they
come out.”
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