Median Sales Prices Rising in Crested Butte

Skyland Custom Home for Sale

April 2012 Issue of the Crested Butte Real Estate Advisor

Greetings from Crested Butte!

The weather has been spectacular in Colorado this March. Unusually warm and sunny days have replaced the snow seemingly overnight. Unfortunately, the ski season was a bit of a bust in Crested Butte and every other resort in Colorado this year but hey, it can snow like mad in April and May too.

Just like the weather, the real estate market in Crested Butte is heating up and many people have asked me why there is so much recent sales activity in our little community.

Year-to-date, we have sold 40 residential properties and an additional 40 properties are under contract. This represents just over $40 million worth of sales activity. This is impressive considering last year at this time, we sold a total of 37 properties at about $14 million in volume.

All that it takes is some research into the median sales price history of our market and its understandable why folks are investing in Crested Butte real estate at such an aggressive clip: Prices are too good to pass up and in certain locations, it is getting more expensive to buy property.

The median sales price metric is the best way to determine the health of a real estate market, better than the average sales price which tends to be skewed by the impact of ultra high or low priced transactions. The median sales price is the middle point of the market where half of all sales occur above the median price and the other half of all sales occur below this number.

Take a look at the results below. After a multi-year slide in values, 2011 appears to be where the market in Crested Butte flattened out. With the exception of the Town of Crested Butte, median sales prices were the lowest they had been in many years so it’s make sense the number of transactions spiked.

Now, year-to-date in 2012, the median sales price for homes, condos and townhomes is rising for the first time in over 4 years. Our transaction count has risen sharply for both homes and condos which helps to validate this current trend of price increases.

Sold Data for Single Family Homes
Locations: Crested Butte, Mt. Crested Butte, Crested Butte South
Median Sales Price by Year No. of Single Family Home Sales
2007 – $675,000 51
2008 – $949,000 39
2009 – $682,500 50
2010 – $655,000 58
2011 – $553,000 89
2012 YTD – $600,000 40 (14 sold, 26 under contract)
2011 Median Sales Price by Location:
Town of Crested Butte: $1,300,000
Mt. Crested Butte: $554,000
Crested Butte South: $325,000
Rural Crested Butte: $572,000
Rural Mt. Crested Butte: $467,000
Sold Data for Condos and Townhomes
Locations: Crested Butte, Mt. Crested Butte, Crested Butte South
Median Sales Price by Year No. of Condo and Townhome Sales
2007 – $601,000 143
2008 – $366,000 58
2009 – $263,000 78
2010 – $238,000 85
2011 – $151,000 125
2012 YTD – $191,000 40 (26 sold, 14 under contract)

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