If Eagle County's real estate market were cars, you might be ready to hit the gas pedal again.
Although the brakes were not applied to the market in 2023 due to economic uncertainty and rising interest rates, the amount of completed sales increased only slightly. Inventories remain low and time on market has taken a break from the heated pace that began in late 2020. However, prices continued to rise.
Mike Budd, a broker with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Colorado Properties, is also a director on the Vail Realtors Board. In a recent release from the Colorado Association of Realtors, Budd wrote that activity in January of this year was a significant increase from January of 2023.
For example, the number of closed sales increased by more than 32% and by value by more than 41%.
Slifer Smith & Frampton, the Valley's largest firm, posted an even bigger increase. Matt Fitzgerald, president of the Vail Valley market for Slifer, Smith & Frampton, said his firm's closed sales are up about 40% from a year ago.
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The number of months of supply is also increasing, reaching a maximum of 3.9 months in January. This number is based on local multiple listing listings and sales from the previous month.
Budd noted in his remarks that six months' supply is considered a “stable” market. Still, the current numbers are a “drastic” improvement, Budd wrote.
The number of days on the market is also increasing, with listed homes spending an average of 62 days on the market.
This number also continues a trend that has developed over the past few years: there are no homes available for purchase for less than $1 million.
In January 2023, 38.8% of all sales were $1 million or less. As of January of this year, only 30.8% of homes were priced under $1 million.
Trends cannot be created in one month.
“We'll have to see how the rest of the quarter goes,” Fitzgerald said, adding that his brokerage is “quite optimistic” about the business at the moment.
Alex Griffin is a managing broker at LIV Sotheby's International Realty. He noted that January is typically a slow time for local real estate business, and that his company did not see a “significant influx” of properties that month. But Griffin added that the past few weeks have started to feel like a “totally different ballgame.”
Travis Cox, local team leader for Keller Williams Mountain Properties, agreed that market activity seems to be “picking up” faster than usual.
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Mr Griffin said there has been a “damming effect” in play for the past few years as affordability and interest rates have kept potential buyers and sellers on the sidelines. People were buying and selling out of necessity, not out of desire, he said. Still, demand continued to outstrip supply, even as the market cooled.
But some people on the sidelines appear to have decided it's time to buy or sell, he said.
“I think the best time to buy is the next three to four months,” Cox said. “Then we expect prices to start rising.”
