Pitkin County property sales slow as home prices rise
Courtesy of Land Title Guarantee
The rush on real estate in Pitkin County in 2020 and 2021 has lost steam in 2022.
Year-to-date sales of $2.9 billion in Pitkin County were 14.67% behind last year’s sales volume of $3.4 billion and also shy of 2020’s $3 billion. Year-to-date figures represent the first 10 months of each year and the dollar volume accounts for residential, agricultural, commercial and other property types.
Transactions totaling $345 million in October alone showed a decline of 21.9% from October 2021, which recorded $441 million in sales. October was the fifth straight month showing declines from 2021, a record-setting year for dollar volume with $4.5 billion in sales.
Those figures are according to the monthly market analysis issued Friday by Denver-based title agency Land Title Guarantee’s office in Glenwood Springs. The figures represented fee-simple transactions, the most common type of ownership that indicates outright possession of land and any structures sitting on it.
There were 570 year-to-date property transactions through October, down 43.73% from the 1,013 transactions recorded during the same period last year, the report showed.
The majority of the dollar volume in property sales came in Aspen, which generated $2.16 billion for the first 10 months of the year. Residential prices in Aspen— that includes single-family homes, condos, duplexes, multiplexes, etc. — averaged $9.51 million. The median price was $5.9 million and the average price per square foot was $2,885.
Countywide, residential transactions totaled $2.42 billion from January through October. The average residential sales price was $6.14 million, the median price was $2.8 million, and $2,080 was the average cost per square foot.
Single-family home sales in Pitkin County accounted for $1.67 billion the first 10 months of 2022. That was spread out over 135 transactions, equating to an average closing price of $12.33 million, according to the report.
In Aspen, the average single-family home price was $19.8 million year to date. The median home price during that period was $12.69 million.
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There were 75 new residential listings through the first three quarters of this year, and with “demand outweighing supply, this has pushed up the price of turnkey, luxury properties,” according to the Douglas Elliman | Knight Frank Ski Report for 2023, which was released last week.
“The slowdown is also a reflection that the market is re-adjusting, having experienced strong sales volumes during the pandemic, inevitably meaning year-on-year sales comparisons will be down,” the report said.
Residential property in Snowmass is where upvalley homebuyers can find lower prices, noted Jason Mansfield, an associate at Knight Frank, in the report.
“Appetite from domestic U.S. buyers has strengthened throughout 2022,” he said. “However, the lack of stock and price rises in Aspen has boosted interest in neighboring destinations, including Snowmass. Here, over 59% of properties sold in the first 10 months of 2022 were below US$4 million. This provides buyers with a value option.”
