The Year Ahead

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Greetings from Crested Butte and the Gunnison Valley!
It took us over a decade to do it but our local real estate market has officially turned the corner on that nasty, multi-year downturn and now performs in a similar manner to the 2004-2008 era. With just over $260 million in transaction volume for the Upper Valley the market exceeded expectations as 2017 ended up being our best year in sales since 2006. 458 properties sold in all locations from Almont to Mt. Crested Butte representing a significant 41% increase over the previous year’s volume of $185 million.

We’ve hit the ground running in 2018 with over 50 properties ($31 million) under contract and for the first time since 2004 scarcity of residential properties for sale is impacting the market in a variety of ways. List prices for homes now exceed replacement cost in every location around the valley and days on market is shrinking with steady demand and limited supply.

The most telling aspect to our market improvement? Land, of all sizes and shapes, is selling again.

Last year we sold 131 land, ranch land, development parcels and smaller home site transactions representing over $35 million in volume. This is a massive jump from 2016 where we saw just $19 million in sales volume spread out over 86 deals. Prices on undeveloped land still hover around 50-60% of their pre-2008 peak values so my market predictions for this year include a continued buy up of our valley’s land offerings. Just this past week, two high profile home site properties sold. Usually its a quiet time of year for selling properties buried under snow but saavy investors sense the market movement and want to take advantage of the current price opportunities.

The other telling aspect? Spec home building. The developers are back in Crested Butte. With the exception of a few spec homes in Crested Butte and Wildhorse at Prospect, our market has not seen much new development since 2006.

Now, new developments are planned or underway in desirable locations including Skyland, Larkspur and Buckhorn Ranch.  Up on the mountain there are 3 newly built luxury spec homes for sale including this offering at Wildhorse at Prospect. In the fast growing community of Crested Butte South there are only 6 homes for sale and sure enough more than 18 building permits are in place this year for single family and multi-family projects.

3 miles from downtown Crested Butte at the Buckhorn Ranch community, 5 new homes are nearing completion and 2 are now available for sale including this $995,000, 4-bedroom offering at 367 White Stallion Circle.

It is safe to state that 2018 is poised for another promising year for our local real estate markets.  For an in-depth discussion of our market’s best opportunities, please contact me anytime. Thanks for reading today.

Channing Boucher
Broker Associate
Crested Butte | Sothebys International Realty
401 Elk Avenue
Crested Butte CO 81224
970-596-3228

Review my recent significant sales here.