#Summit County #Colorado
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| Michael Yearout Photography |
After tracking mostly on pace through the first two months of the year, Summit County's real estate sales hit a downturn in March, leading to a noticeable dip in the county's first-quarter figures, according to Slifer Smith & Frampton.
The High Country real estate giant tracks a wide variety of statistics associated with the local real estate market, and Summit saw a roughly 12 percent decline in both its number of real estate transactions and their combined value for the first three months of 2018 compared to the first quarter of 2017, according to the company's most recent market report.
The most expensive sale of the month, a luxury home at 584 Water Dance Drive in Frisco, went for $2.3 million. It's a four-bedroom, five-bathroom 4,400-square-foot house in Frisco's prestigious Water Dance neighborhood. A single-family home in the Ski Home subdivision of Breckenridge, along with a couple condos and a vacant lot, also in Breckenridge, rounded out the five priciest sales of the month, according to the Summit County Assessor's Office.
And March did outperform the two months leading up to it, January and February, but the month remained 32 percent behind the number of sales and 40 percent below their combined value compared to the record-setting March 2017.
For Slifer Smith & Frampton, the county's first-quarter decline can be blamed on a lackluster March, but moreover, the declines indicate a lack of available listings is starting to slow the pace of local real estate sales.
As proof, the company cites other statistics, like the falling number of days homes spend on the market, rising prices per square foot or a narrowing gap between asking and closing prices.
"Residential properties are still commanding higher prices and moving quickly," the company surmised, offering an assessment not unique among local real estate professionals.
According to another monthly report, this one prepared by Coldwell Banker Mountain Properties, Summit County's average sale price for a home was $636,000 in March, up from $572,450 in March 2017.
Additionally, Coldwell's monthly market snapshot noted that the average price per square foot has risen at the same time the average number of days a home spends on the market has fallen to just 12 days.
The numbers can vary depending on town, price points and even neighborhood, but the trends reflect that demand is exceeding supply.
In fact, with 521 active listings on April 10, the number remains at record lows, according to Land Title Guarantee Company of Summit County, which breaks down those listings into 345 for residential properties and 176 for vacant land.
Looking at where those properties are, 231 were in Breckenridge, 129 in Silverthorne, 87 in Keystone, 36 in Copper, 27 in Frisco and 11 in Dillon, according to Slifer Smith & Frampton.
The Summit County Assessor's Office also recently released March's sales of record with information on 139 local real estate transactions worth $86.4 million. Compare that to March 2017, when there were 176 sales for $122.8 million, and it shows just how far apart the same months in subsequent years were.
Going back even further, this March's sales were mostly in line with the same month in 2016, when there were 150 transactions worth $83.1 million. However, March 2016's stats were buoyed by a $9.25 million sale.
As far as the luxury housing market goes, defined as housing sales at or over $1 million, LIV Sotheby's International Reality, another local real estate broker, has also noticed a sharp decline in the number of transactions and a smaller reduction in their combined value this March.
However, that was coupled with a dramatic spike in the number of luxury houses coming on the market, with 42 new listings in March against 15 in February and 29 in March 2017.
MARCH BY THE NUMBERS
139: Total real estate sales
176: Total real estate sales (2017)
$86.4 million: Total value of sales
$122.8 million: Total value of sales (2017)
$2.3 million: Most expensive sale
$4.15 million: Most expensive sale (2017)
21: Sales at or above $1 million
39: Sales at or above $1 million (2017)
Source: Summit County Assessor's Office
Top 5 real estate sales of March
1. $2.3 million — 584 Water Dance Drive, Wooden Canoe at Water Dance subdivision, Frisco (single-family home)
2. $1.97 million — 134 Grandview Drive, Ski Home subdivision, Breckenridge (single-family home)
3. $1.8 million — Unit 2, 66 Cucumber Patch Placer Road, Cucumber Patch at Shock Hill, Breckenridge (condo)
4. $1.75 million (tie) — Unit 505, 42 Snowflake Drive, BlueSky, Breckenridge (condo)
5. $1.75 million (tie) — 256 Timber Trail Road, Timber Trail subdivision, Breckenridge (vacant land)
Source: Summit County Assessor's Office
