Crested Butte Market Update June 2006

Good morning readers!

The overall market is staying hot as we head into the Summer months. Our "sellers market" is starting to ease County-wide a bit due only to the sheer number of high priced properties competing for market share. Properties including Mt. Crested Butte condos and vacant land in Crested Butte South and Buckhorn Ranch are holding their value but seem to have leveled off in terms of pricing. Of course, we are not at our mid-Summer peak real estate buying season.

Single family home and vacant land prices in Mt. Crested Butte and Crested Butte are still climbing in the face of solid demand for these two areas. Seller’s will always have an advantage in these highly desireable micro-markets. With an average price of a Crested Butte home hovering around $1.3 MM sellers are seeing favorable action. Lets face it, there isn’t much room left. Single family lots in the Verzuh annexation are currently on the market for over $ 700,000!

And, commercial property action in the Town of Crested Butte is picking up. Vacant land and existing buildings and businesses are seeing strong demand and activity.

10 minutes down Highway 135 in Crested Butte South it is still a seller’s market – for homes – thanks to the much higher prices in the Town of Crested Butte. Crested Butte South single family homes are averaging $610,000. Crested Butte South is considered a bargain compared to Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte. Interestingly, there are a fair number of vacant lots available in Crested Butte South that are priced right – some of these lots have come off last Summer’s high price-high volume activity.

What’s the bottom line for this market over the mid-term?

In Crested Butte there is simply less real property available for growing demand. Versus other popular ski resort destinations like Vail/Beaver Creek, Jackson Hole, or Telluride. Crested Butte is located in Gunnison County, which contains more designated Wilderness area, National Forest and Public Lands (BLM) than any other County in Colorado.

Also, the Crested Butte Land Trust has done an incredible job of securing key wetlands, large ranchlands and other key areas of Crested Butte to ensure wide-open spaces and pristine zones of non-development. Thus, real property scarcity will continue the equitable growth of property values in Gunnison County for many years to come. Our townships have been designed to consolidate growth and check widespread resort development. This is a highly unique situation. At some point the rest of the world will figure this out and Crested Butte will be a very expensive place to buy real estate.

Thanks for checking in today!

Channing Boucher
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