Prices are at record highs. Supplies of mountain homes for sale have never been lower. Across Colorado’s high country, resort community real estate sales have set records since July. Through October, the total real estate sales from six Colorado resort counties are nearly $1 billion greater than all sales last year.
Back in 2007, when mountain real estate was humming with sky-high prices in a frenzied market, high country buyers and brokers assumed national problems would not reach isolated resort communities. But the economic collapse, triggered by suspect lending, did reach the mountains, and the real estate market withered in the Great Recession right along with urban markets.
Once again the mountain market is raging. But there are signs that indicate this time around could be different. There aren’t any sketchy financial schemes propping up lending. The pandemic is shifting priorities as a wave of largely urban residents moves to Colorado’s high country. The newcomers are scooping up primary homes, not just vacation getaways, and they are moving in.
“People were playing with funny money in ‘07,” said Gil Fancher, the co-owner of the Vail Real Estate Center. “Now we are seeing people buying because they want to change their life. I do not see us falling off a cliff any time soon.”
