We’ll never forget March 14, 2020 when Governor Polis abruptly shut down all Colorado ski resorts in an emergency Covid-19 order and the ripple effect that occurred thereafter – even Mother Nature obeyed and for two weeks we received no snow!!  The days of quarantine seemed to drag, and we anxiously awaited June 1st to see restaurants and lodging re-open and for life to slowly return to Ski Town/Bike Town USA® – and return it did! Even with almost all the “normal” summer events cancelled, people came! Golf, tennis, pickleball, biking, tubing, boating, camping, hiking etc. all became more popular than ever and having your own place in Steamboat and its surrounding communities became a priority for many.  Third quarter has historically produced the most sales volume for our market; however, with the fears of Covid, no one could have forecast the upshot that July would kick off.  As predicted in August, new listings were up in September – however, we certainly did not anticipate the margins that they would increase by! Single-family listings were up a whopping 140% – registering year-to-date listings at 402 compared to 397 last year! New listings for townhouse-condos were up 73.8% which narrowed the gap to within -1.9% of new listings for 2019.  With these increases, it is not surprising that pending sales were up 112% for single-family and 63.2% for multi-family.

In 2019, Routt County experienced 37 sales of residential properties priced $2M and up. Currently, 43 properties in this price range have closed at an average sales price of $3.13M with an additional 23 under contract. This surge seems telling that having a larger home with a home office and space for multi-generations to congregate has not lost its appeal.

Even with the increased listings over the past two months, there is not enough inventory to meet demand.  Some buyers are getting frustrated with lack of inventory, lack of days on market and/or multiple offer situations.  New lending restrictions may be coming into play for condos with short-term rentals, perhaps in December which may create some hurdles. Given the current market conditions, we have three recommendations: 1. Be actively engaged with a full-time broker, 2. Don’t expect to find the “perfect” property and  3. Remember the proverb, “If at first you don’t succeed, Try, try, try again”!

Note: September 2020 statistics provided via the Colorado Association of Realtors, ShowingTime & ReColorado.