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Average home price in Routt County up 22 percent through April

Tom Ross
Average single-family home prices in Routt County were up 22.5 percent through March
John F. Russell

— After remaining flat in 2011 and 2012 at $631,000, the average price of a single-family home in Routt County is on the rise again, and prices here are up more steeply than in five other mountain counties tracked by Land Title Guarantee Co.

Land Title reported the price of a single-family home here was up 22.52 percent in the first quarter of 2013, rising to $773,377. The upward movement of average home prices here is in contrast to a somewhat comparable market in Summit County, where the average price of a home has climbed less than a percentage point so far in 2013.

The local trend might have been driven by a microburst of multimillion-dollar home sales. Stan Urban, of Land Title in Steamboat, reported in May that for the first four months of 2013, there had been 21 sales at prices greater than $1 million, when residential units of all kinds are included. Of those, eight were more than $2 million and five were greater than $3 million. The total number compares to 56 greater than $1 million in all of 2012. Those numbers do include condominiums and townhomes.



Urban said several indicators look positive for the Steamboat market.

“Gross dollar volume was up 34.32 percent in April,” he said. “And gross dollar volume for the year is now up 21.22 percent. Transactions were also up by 18.89 percent from last April, and the year-to-date transactions are up 15.12 percent. Most of the market indicators are continuing to point towards stabilization.”



Land Title issued a market analysis this week for six mountain resort communities including Eagle (Vail), Garfield, Grand, Pitkin (Aspen), Routt and Summit counties. Pitkin and Eagle stand apart form the others with almost $1.5 billion of real estate dollar volume in 2012 and average home prices of $4 million and $1 million, respectively. Summit County, with more towns and more ski areas than Routt County, reached $773 million in 2012 dollar volume compared with $483.9 million here. However, in terms of single family homes, Summit, with 95 such transactions averaging $758,860, and Routt, with 94 transactions and an average price of $773,377, are comparable.

Pitkin County saw the steepest decline of the six counties in single-family home price, slipping 4.5 percent.

Doug Labor, of Buyers Resource Real Estate in Steamboat, tracks data for the Steamboat Springs multiple listing service and said this week that the local market has ample inventory in the million-dollar-plus range. There currently are 128 single-family homes listed for sale and priced higher than $1 million in the county, including 20 farms and ranches on larger acreages. That number also includes homes in the city.

Within the city of Steamboat Springs, there are 51 homes listed for sale at prices greater than $1 million when Strawberry Park is included.

Despite the abundant supply of high-end homes, there are signs of a housing construction recovery here. A significant number of permits issued for single-family homes by the Routt County Regional Building Department in May were for million-dollar homes. Those permits are for homes in Steamboat and in Routt County outside the city limits.

There is a new home about to go forward in Strawberry Park with a permit valuation of $2.35 million and another with a permit value of $3.2 million on Bumpy Trail on the More Ranch.

Building permit values are less than the retail value of the completed home, according to Building Department officials.

In The Sanctuary, there are two new homes poised to begin construction with permits issued for a $1.7 million structure on Heavenly View and another on Golf View Way with a permit value of $1.22 million.

Finally, a permit valued at $927,826, which will be a million-dollar home with land costs and final finishes included, has been issued on a street in Tree Haus known as Annanina.

The Building Department also issued a permit last month for a home on Pitkin Street with a value of $351,725. Through April, Land Title reports, there have been 41 sales of homes priced between $300,000 and $500,000.

To reach Tom Ross, call 970-871-4205 or email tross@SteamboatToday.com


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