Crested Butte Real Estate Advisor Issue #2: Springtime in the Rockies

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Happy Springtime from Crested Butte, Colorado

It’s official. It is off season in Crested Butte and Springtime in our Rocky Mountain paradise has kicked off with impressive snow storms mixed in with some sunny, bluebird days too! The ski resort closed for the season last weekend and it’s now Spring Break for the Crested Butte Community School. The town is very quiet but the real estate economy is making a lot of noise.

Real Estate Investment Hitting Remarkable Levels

Year to date, 66 residential properties have sold ($33 million in sales) and another 40 properties are currently under contract. Average sold prices per transaction are climbing too, reaching $491,000 average per sale. This sales momentum is carry over from Q4 last year when 60 home and condo sales helped to close out the last 3 months of 2012. During this historically quiet time in our marketplace, the intensity of area real estate investment is showing no signs of letting up as we prepare for our important Summer selling season. Agents around the market report a significant uptick in inquiries, online interest and showing requests for area homes…and it’s only April!

The consensus among real estate agents and their clients? Interested investors feel the buyer’s market condition is slipping away and for some locations around the valley it has become very challenging to find a hot deal on a quality home or condo.

In response to the market condition, some home sellers are pushing list prices to their highest levels since 2008. For example, in Crested Butte South during 2012, the median sold price for a single family home was $379,000. Currently, the median list price for a Crested Butte South single family home is $478,000.

Significant Sales in Crested Butte

Luxury home and land property sales are certainly helping to drive our rising average sold prices. Considered the anchor of our greater real estate marketplace, the Town of Crested Butte continues to live up to this reputation. Over the past month, a spec home on Butte Avenue sold for $1.9 million, a home on 4th Street sold for $1,315,000, a vacant parcel on Butte Avenue sold for $1.1 million and a vacant parcel on 9th Street sold for $650,000. Interestingly,last year, the median sold price for a home located in the town limits of Crested Butte was $545,000. So far in 2013, the median sold price in town for a single family home is $725,000.

CBMR, RTA and the Gunnison Airport

CBMR’s executive team announced in February that they were in talks with TelSki – Telluride’s ski resort – about partnering on a joint air service program that included direct flights from numerous cities across the U.S. into the Montrose Regional Airport. This program would basically eliminate direct jet service into our local airport in Gunnison.  It is safe to say that most of us living and working here in Gunnison County shuddered at the thought of losing air service into Gunnison airport. But, CBMR officials announced last week that they’ve abandoned the 2013-14 flight program into Montrose as a result of higher-than-anticipated costs for that service.

In recent years, through a public-private partnership, CBMR and the Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) have paid large revenue guarantees to attract airlines to the Gunnison airport during the ski season. As it stands now, direct jet service into Gunnison from Dallas and Houston should be back for next ski season. Read more at the Gunnison Country Times

Thanks for reading my newsletter today and we hope to see you in Crested Butte this Summer!

Channing Boucher
Broker Associate
Benson Sotheby’s International Realty