Around the state of Colorado and here in Crested Butte, home sales – including luxury homes – are on the rise. In the Denver metro area, luxury home sales reached the highest point in nearly two years this June, demonstrating a steady improvement in the luxury home market. Sixty-seven homes sold for $1 million or more last month, up 3% from June 2010. Among the priciest pads sold last month in the Denver area was a six-bedroom, five-bathroom 9,207 square foot Denver home that sold for $3.95 million. According to the Denver Business Journal, this peak in sales can be attributed to super low mortgage rates and competitively priced homes.

Resort towns in Colorado are experiencing similar luxury market conditions. Towns like Telluride and Vail are reporting a serious uptick in luxury home sales. Telluride’s multi-million dollar market has returned. So far this year in Telluride, there have been eight home sales of more than $4 million, including three sales between $8 million and $10.1 million. Vail luxury real estate prices are the lowest since 2004 and buyers have noticed. Year-to-date sales are almost double what they were in 2009.

The Steamboat Springs real estate market saw 29 single-family homes sell in the first quarter of 2010 with an average sale price of $730,000. In Summit County the average home price in the first quarter of this year was $740,000. The average home price in Telluride during this same period was $3.33 million, topping Vail’s average sales price of $1.95 million.

In Crested Butte, luxury home prices starting dropping in early 2008. Many would-be buyers have been sitting on the sidelines, watching prices slip and waiting . Their patience appears to be paying off. Investors are entering the market and getting deals on luxury homes in the process.

Year to date, twenty-six Crested Butte-area homes have sold at an average price of $702,000 with 23% of these homes selling between $1.1 and $1.5 million. And, we have six more luxury properties currently under contract ranging in price from $990,000 to almost $4.5 million. The last sale of a Crested Butte luxury home priced over $3 million occurred in June of 2007 and we now have two homes priced at or above $3 million under contract.

Consider this: Back in 2008, forty Crested Butte-area single family homes sold at an average price of $1,085,000 and seventeen properties traded between $1 and $3 million. Twelve of these sold at $1.5 million or higher.

Last year, fifty single family homes sold at an average price of $865,000. Fourteen of these homes closed above $1 million and six properties sold at values above $2 million.

This represents a $365,000 drop in average sales prices over the last two years. For some, it’s starting to look like the market has bottomed out.

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Thanks for reading today!

Channing Boucher
Broker Associate
Benson Sotheby’s International Realty

Contact Channing at 970-596-3228 or via his website.
Channing’s Blog: The Crested Butte Real Estate Letter

Benson Sotheby’s International Realty | 433 Sixth Street | Crested Butte | CO | 81224