Tom Ross' On the Market column appears Sundays in the Real Estate section of the Steamboat Pilot & Today. Contact him at 871-4205 or e-mail tross@steamboatpilot.com.

Fractional market chalks up 75 sales

Re-sales of fractional ownerships at the Steamboat Grand Resort Hotel led the Steamboat market during the first six months of 2008.

Bruce Carta of Land Title Guarantee Co. compiled statistics from Routt County government that show the fractional market here compiled sales totaling just more than $6 million during the first six months of the year.

The Steamboat Grand accounted for 65 percent of the dollar volume, with $3.93 million in sales spread over 31 transactions. The average transaction price at the Grand was $126,884.

The total number of fractional transactions through June was 75. There were eight in the month of June alone. Christie Club and the Porches were ahead of the Grand in average transaction price, albeit on lower volume. Christie Club saw $1.15 million in sales on five transactions average $230,600. The Porches recorded two sales, which combined for $640,000.

Routt County on a

budget in South Routt

David Baldinger Jr. of Steamboat Village Brokers reports that building lots in South Routt County represent one of the remaining opportunities to acquire real estate in the upper Yampa Valley for less than $200,000.

Prospective buyers can look at a Sky Hitch lot at Stagecoach and another at Morningside at Stagecoach. There is also a residential lot in Oak Creek in that price range.

Buyers whose earnings-to-debt ratio allows them to afford between $200,000 and $400,000 can consider a four-bedroom log home in Coyote Run at Stagecoach.

There are also one- and two-bedroom condominiums near the base of the Steamboat Ski Area in that price range. They include units at The West, Shadow Run, Storm Meadows, Timber Run, Sunray Meadows, The Timbers and Whistler Village.

Home prices increase despite volume drop

Doug Labor of Buyer's Resource Real Estate reports that median purchase prices in Routt County and Steamboat Springs are increasing even as transaction volume (demand) drops about 20 percent and inventory (supply) increases.

Even though inventory is up 90 percent, Labor said, prices of single-family homes are holding steady and even growing in all regions of the larger Steamboat market.

The median prices of single-family homes in the city limits have increased by 16 percent in the past year, to $855,000.

When one considers that home sales at the highest price points in Steamboat are one of the strongest segments of the market thus far in 2008, it's reasonable to conclude that they have stretched the median.

The median price point is that at which half the sales were at lower prices and half were at higher prices. With seven sales priced above $3 million in the first half of the year, it's likely they could have pulled the median up. Those $3 million-plus homes sales do even more to skew the average sales price.