Real estate activity in Routt County for 2019 started off appearing as it would be much slower than the activity of 2018. However, after a busy last few months, the market is only down 2% in total volume, making 2019 an extremely active year. Through November, there were 1,109 transactions totaling $683M, down only $9M from this time last year.
Single family homes in Routt County continue to appreciate at a healthy rate, with an average price of $933K, up 10% from a year ago. Condos and townhomes are increasing in value at a more modest rate, up only 2% to $478K.
Over the last couple of months it’s worth noting the significant drop in active listings. It’s typical that inventory ramps up in the spring and ticks down throughout the year; however, there are now only 365 active residential listings, down from a peak of 569 in July. For comparison, last November there were 456 listings, so the yearly drop is quite extensive. Month’s of supply have also plunged to a multi-year low of 4.5 months, off of July’s high of 7.4 months. It’s become clear that rising home prices and lack of new construction is going to continue to interfere with buyer’s plans of finding bargains on a possible market dip.
Since August, there have been an average of 46 new listings hitting the market each month, a sizeable dip compared to previous years. In addition, during the same timeframe, another 144 homes listed for sale have been pulled off of the market, compared to only 98 last year, taking a big chunk out of active inventory. Many of these sellers will re-list their homes come spring but that doesn’t help buyers actively looking now.
Out of region buyer activity picks up in the winter. So far this year, exactly half of the buyers in Steamboat are locals, while 27% came from out of state and 22% from the Front Range. Outside of Colorado, Florida and Texas have the most Steamboat buyers, significantly more than any other states. To date, there have only been two international buyers.
As always, your friends at Colorado Group Realty are happy to answer any real estate questions that you may have; please give us a call!
