Crested Butte Real Estate Advisor December 2017

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Wow! What a year for our valley. 2017 kicked off in the middle of an epic winter season. The snow was plentiful and so were the skiers. Colorado ski resorts enjoyed their 2nd-best ski season ever with almost 13 million skier visits reported and big increases in guest spending. Crested Butte banked a 6.8% increase in taxable sales due to the soaring demand from the “drive” market of Front Range skiers and riders looking for something different and for a place to go that doesn’t involve traveling on Interstate 70.

Then our summer season experienced another incredible surge in tourism. Visitor spending increased on all fronts with record breaking tax revenues pouring in. Real estate sales and construction activity followed suit with aggressive buying and many new home starts. Inventories of homes and condos have dropped to their lowest levels since 2005 and now we are seeing numerous spec projects popping up in Buckhorn Ranch, Skyland, Larkspur, Mt Crested Butte and Crested Butte South.

This year’s real estate market saw notable increases in demand for higher end luxury homes and ranch properties and dramatic changes to market areas like Crested Butte South which used to be one of the Upper Valley’s affordable communities. Nine of the seventeen homes sold in CB South this year closed above $600,000 with the median sold price per SFT hovering around $300! The highest price paid for a home in CB South was $920,000.

Here is a list of 10 real estate market highlights from 2017:
1. We surpassed the $200 million in sales volume for the first time since 2008.
2. Over 300 residential properties sold.
3. The highest price paid for a home: $4.5 million – a home on 35 acres.
4. The lowest price paid: $60,000 – a studio at the Grand Lodge.
5. Over 50 residential properties sold at or above $1 million.
6. 15 properties sold at or above $2 million and 5 sold at or above $3 million.
7. There are 116 homes for sale right now, 90 of them are listed above $1 million.
8. The median list price for a homesite in the Town of Crested Butte: $1.2 million.
9. The median list price for a home in Crested Butte South: $680,000.
10. Volume of real estate sold in the Upper Valley between 2004 and today: Over $2 billion.

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