February sees mixed results after strong January

After a very strong opening in the first month of the year, February was only able to produce mixed results for Summit County real estate sales. Dollar volume was able to generate a percent gain over a year ago to $71.2 million. However that compares to a 45 percent gain seen in January. In addition, February sales were down about $21 million from the prior month.
Unit volume in the period was actually down 8% to 116 transactions versus 126 in February of 2016 and 138 in January of this year.
As the discrepancy in units versus dollars suggests, the higher end of the market was stronger than the lower end on a relative to prior year periods. Year to date, sales over $1 million have represented 17.4% of total transaction whereas they represented only 10.8 percent of sales for all of 2016.
Not surprisingly, the average sales prices (ASPs) have also risen. Year to date, the ASP for a single family home was $1,154,877, up 36% from the level of a year ago.
Multi-family ASPs are also up but not quite as dramatically. The year to date ASP for condos, duplexes and townhomes was $432,021 up 7 percent from this time last year.
No doubt prices are on the rise. So far this year the ASP per square foot in Breckenridge is $523 up 4 percent over a year ago. Frisco has seen a 27 percent increase to $439 while Keystone is up 10 percent to $385. Only Silverthorne has seen a decline, dropping 4 percent to $286.
However, rising prices alone don’t explain the magnitude of the year to date 25% gain in dollar sales. Inventories too are playing a key role. The number of listings has ticked up modestly but the count is still near historical lows. This is particularly true for lower priced properties. Across the entire county there are only 37 single family homes listed below $1 million and 65 multi-family properties below $500,000. This in a county with approximately 28,000 residential properties. In fact the average list price for a single family home is over $2 million and the average multi-family property is over $750,000.