Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — The five mountain resort real estate markets closest to Steamboat Springs and Routt County all have their quirks, but they also provide insights into where the local market stands among second-home buyers who may be shopping not only across the Colorado Rockies but also in Utah, Montana and California.

Aspen and Pitkin County, where the average single-family home price for sales through September of this year was $4.11 million, are in a world of their own. Still, the stratospheric prices in Aspen tell us what the ceiling for mountain homes might be.

By the way, the average price of a single-family home in Aspen this year is down from $4.34 million in 2010.

Vail and Eagle County also have a reputation for very high-end home sales. But Eagle has more diversity than Pitkin, with towns like Edwards, Eagle and Gypsum strung along Interstate 70 like beads on a necklace. Some real estate professionals might be surprised to learn that taken on a price-per-square-foot basis, sales of single-family homes through September in Eagle were right on par with Routt County.

That is caused in part by the fact Eagle had dropped steeply from $320.54 per square foot in 2010 to $236 this year. Routt, on the other hand, saw the average single-family price drop modestly from $279 per square foot in 2010 to $235.70 this year.

Summit County, though it has a different character from Steamboat, often matches Routt County more closely than other counties in terms of real estate trends. The average single-family price per square foot in Summit this year is $255 compared with $269 in 2010.

Among six nearby mountain communities tracked by Land Title Guarantee Co., Eagle County ranked second to Pitkin County this year in average single-family home price at $908,000. It’s a sign that some very large sales are influencing that number in a market where the average price per square foot is relatively low. The average home price in Eagle in 2010 was $1.15 million.

The average home price in Summit through three quarters this year had slipped only slightly to $754,300, down from $770,800 in 2010.

Routt County saw a bigger drop in average price, moving all the way from $816,893 in 2010 to $660,700 as of the end of September.

Grand and Garfield counties round out the survey, and their markets are distinctly different with average single-family home prices of $372,000 and $329,000, respectively, this year.

One market segment where Routt leads Summit is in the average price of homes in multifamily projects. Summit was at $373,000 for condos and townhomes through September, and Steamboat’s average sales price was $424,175.

— To reach Tom Ross, call 970-871-4205 or email tross@SteamboatToday.com