Steamboat Springs Real Estate Report

Home prices both nationally and locally continue to  rise at a slow and steady rate. Studies show that consumer confidence is growing, and recent surveys show that vacation-home sales are increasing. All of these factors bode well for a resort market like Steamboat Springs and for all real estate in Steamboat, Colorado.

Our housing market tends to lag behind larger cities like the ones studied for the S & P Case-Schiller Home Price Index. Cities like Chicago, Houston and Denver are considered feeder markets to Steamboat Springs since there are direct flights to/from these cities we see a fair number of second-home buyers from these areas. When we see good reports about their housing markets, along with greater consumer confidence, we can infer that our real estate transactions are going to pick up, and so far they have.

Local Steamboat Springs Market

April was another good month for real estate transactions in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Transactions in Routt County were up +20.56% over April 2013 for a total of 129 transactions. Gross dollar volume was down -9.12% compared to the previous April with a total of $38.3M. So far this year, we are up +4.29% in transactions compared to this time last year.

There was a shift in the price-point of properties sold during the month of April with 40% of transactions sold being priced at over $1M. This may be attributed to the rising stock market and consumer confidence.

> 37% of transaction volume was under $500,000 (55% in March)
> 24% of transaction volume was between $500,001 – $1,000,000 (31% in March)
> 40% of transaction volume was over $1M (16% in March)
>   3 Bank sales
> YTD transactions are up +4.29%%
> YTD dollar volume down -15.73%

National Real Estate Market

The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index for March 2014 reported that all 20 cities continued to record positive year-over-year returns with an increase of 12.4% and gains of roughly 0.9% from the month before. Annual price increases for both the 10-city and 20-city composites suggest that prices have been rising more slowly over the last four months.

David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, states, “Despite signs of decelerating prices, all cities were higher than a year ago and all but New York were higher in March than in February. However, only Denver and Dallas have set new post-crisis highs and they experienced relatively lower peak levels than other cities.”

While new housing starts recovered the drop in March, virtually all the gain was in apartment construction, not single family homes. New home sales have recently rebounded but still remain soft. Mortgage rates are near a seven month low but recent comments from the Fed point to bank lending standards as a problem. Others believe student loan debt is preventing many potential first time buyers from entering the housing market.

Preparing to Buy a Home

Speaking of entering the housing market, there is more to purchasing a home than just looking at available properties. Your home purchase begins way before you step foot into a house that’s on the market. Here is a short video I made with financial tips before buying real estate. The video was made a year or so ago, and Kathryn Pedersen now runs Fidelity Mortgage in Steamboat, but all the tips remain absolutely relevant.

If you would like to learn more about Steamboat’s real estate market and the lifestyle that we enjoy here, please contact me or follow me on Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest and Twitter. I am passionate about this community and real estate, let me show you why.

Regards,
Charlie

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