View This Month’s Crested Butte Real Estate Insider News Issue #4 – 2010
Crested Butte real estate sales activity has picked up in 2010. In fact, twice as many homes, condos and townhomes have sold year-to-date compared to the 1st quarter of 2009.
41 properties have closed in 2010 versus 22 sales during the same time frame in 2009.
This represents over $18 million worth of Crested Butte real estate investment in 2010. Additionally, there are 18 properties under contract representing $11 million. Considering where we were last year at this time, these are promising numbers.
What is causing this uptick in deal making? For starters, the high inventory of available properties has forced prices downward. Last year at this time, the average sales price on a home was $506,000. Now, the average residential sales price is hovering around $433,000.
And, mortgage rates remain very attractive. Saavy buyers, some fearful of looming inflation in the U.S., are taking advantage of low interest rate, long term loans and scooping up some very nice real estate. Some of the best deals are located in Mt. Crested Butte right now. In particular, condos in and around the ski resort are selling. (45 sales since July 2009 and 16 so far this year).
In spite of the cheap money available to home buyers, it is interesting to note that of the 41 deals this year, half were “all-cash” transactions. I expect this trend to continue this year.
Last year, the majority of the $108 million in real estate deals we realized occurred in the last 5 months of the year. With the traditionally strong summer and fall selling seasons yet to begin in Crested Butte, the real estate market is on track to beat 2009’s performance.
In other Colorado real estate news, Telluride’s Sotheby’s office just closed what will go down as one of the biggest real estate deals in this state’s history. The Boot Jack Ranch in Pagosa Springs was sold this past week for $46.5 million to a Texas billionaire. The figure beats the $43 million paid by New York money manager Lewis A. Sanders for a 10-bedroom contemporary and guest house in Aspen last summer, a deal believed to set the U.S. record last year. Check out the photos from this amazing Colorado ranch property.The summer music season in Crested Butte is shaping up to be one of the best ever. The Crested Butte Music Festival just announced an awesome line up of summertime events.Follow this link to plan your summer vacation’s musical fun. New for this year is Crested Butte’s first ever bluegrass festival. The Bluegrass in Paradise Festival goes off July 6-8 and features the likes of musical greats: Drew Emmitt, Blue Highway, Bearfoot, Springcreek Bluegrass, Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys, Billy Nershi and Shannon Whitworth.
Finally, the Town of Crested Butte has put over 300 acres of Slate River valley land under contract. Known as the Kochevar Parcel, the Town of Crested Butte aims to lock up this huge chunk of prime Colorado dirt and manage it as recreational open space. The purchase price is $5.3 million.
The Town teamed up with the Crested Butte Land Trust and GOCO (Great Outdoors Colorado) and the Trust for Public Lands (TPL) – a national organization that is fronting the money for the purchase. Learn more at the Crested Butte News.Thanks for reading today!
Channing Boucher
Broker Associate
Contact Channing at 970-596-3228 or via his website.
Benson Sotheby’s International Realty | 433 Sixth Street | Crested Butte | CO | 81224
