Steamboat's Real Estate Transactions Median Price are up 25% from 2007

Median prices grow 25 percent
Dollar volume shows steep drop from last year
By Tom Ross (Contact)- Reporter Steamboat Pilot & Today
Sunday, July 6, 2008

Steamboat Springs — The median price of all types of real estate transactions in Routt County in May was up 25 percent in 2007 even as dollar volume fell dramatically from $205.5 million last year to $68.15 million this year.

May 2007 dollar volume established a record for any month in Steamboat Springs history. The total was inflated by large transactions such as the $58 million sale of the Sheraton Steamboat Resort to Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide.

This year’s May dollar volume also was down compared to $88.6 million in May 2006.

The median transaction price in Routt County in May was $468,000 compared to $375,000 during the record-setting month of May 2007, an increase of 25 percent, said Bruce Carta of Land Title Guarantee Company.

Average and median prices are climbing across all of the different categories of real estate, from building lots to condominiums, David Baldinger Jr. said. He is the managing broker/owner of Steamboat Village Brokers. He anticipates the overall market will return to 2006 dollar volumes this year.

“Prices are still showing healthy increases in the first quarter of 2008 compared to 2007,” he said. “They are up 4 to 26 percent depending on the category and price band.”

Among 50 home sales in May, Routt County saw the sale of nine residential units priced greater than $1 million and 15 priced between $300,000 and $500,000.

Baldinger said slowing volume combined with an increase in inventory this summer has improved conditions for buyers from a year ago, when certain kinds of real estate were in tight supply and there was competition for those properties. Buyers have more choices this summer than they did a year ago, he said.

Successful sellers this summer are apt to be those who base asking prices on actual comparative sales, he added.

May sales in downtown Steamboat Springs and at the ski mountain were remarkably close in terms of average transaction price — $1.01 million for the former and $1.064 million for the latter, according to Carta. Downtown saw 11 transactions, and there were 29 at the mountain.

Average prices in Hayden were more modest, averaging almost $169,000, but the unit volume of 11 transactions shows rising interest in that growing community. Year to date, Hayden has seen 111 transactions for an aggregate value of $12.55 million.


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