Field of Dreams. That’s what we became.

When Covid concerns caused for every event to be canceled including the marathon, Mustang Rally, Triple Crown, 4th of July Parade & fireworks, Art in the Park, Strings in the Mountains, Parade of Homes etc., etc., we feared for our small businesses- just like Ray Kinsella feared for the survival of his Iowa farm. But then, they came. They came in record numbers to flyfish, tube the Yampa river, play golf, tennis, pickleball, bike ride, hot air balloon ride, kayak, water ski, paddleboard, hike, ATV, camp and hunt.  And they came to buy real estate.  Buyers needed to decide whether to “go the distance” and in doing so, would compete in many multiple offer situations.  At a time where new listings are typically scant, December saw an increase in new listings as sellers continue to take advantage of the market, helping to increase total residential listings over 2019 by approximately 6%. Like most of the State, inventory is the biggest problem and active listings for single-family were down 70.3% and townhouse/condo listings down 59.6%.  Last year at this time, there was a 7 month supply of single-family homes and a 3.5 month supply of townhome/condo; current supply is 1.7 and 1.2 months respectively.  The median sales price for a single-family home in 2020 was up 13.1% to $840,750 and 14.7% to $489,950 for townhomes/condos.

The upper-end market of $2M and above closed 70 transactions in 2020 vs. 37 in 2019 at an average price of just under $3.1M. Routt County is blessed with a lot of private land and there were 328 closings on vacant parcels ranging from $4500 – $4.9M with an average sales price of $381,621.

With the current market, Buyers will need to keep their eye on the ball, while it seems sellers may hit it out of the park. As the Steamboat Resort continues its process for approvals of a 650-acre expansion that would make Steamboat the 2ndlargest Colorado ski resort and construction of the longest gondola in North America (the Wild Blue Gondola), the desirability of real estate in the Steamboat Springs area looks to stay promising.

“Is there a heaven? Oh yeah. It’s the place where dreams come true.” We call it Steamboat.

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