The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat revisits $100 million barrier

Steamboat Springs — The Routt County real estate market went through the $100 million barrier for gross dollar volume in June, the first time it has reached that plateau since December 2007.

The total for June was $101.7 million. That number pales in comparison to the $150 million the market achieved in June 2007. However, July 2006 marked the first time the local market had ever surpassed $100 million. The closest the market had come this year was in January, when dollar volume was $80.8 million.

Bruce Carta of Land Title Guarantee Co. researches the dollar volume statistics on public Web sites.

Dollar volume for the month represents actual closings, and it’s pertinent to note the bulk of those sales represent contracts written the previous month, or even two months earlier. Carta reported that last month’s dollar volume was helped by the sale of two homes with a combined value of $11.9 million.

The aggregate value of 10 homes in Routt County that sold for more than $1 million in June was $25.7 million.

In contrast, 25 homes priced below $500,000 added up to $7.5 million.

Poll: Affluent unshaken by housing downturn

High Mountain Sotheby’s International Realty in Steamboat Springs is reporting the results of a survey that indicates market confidence among affluent buyers and sellers of real estate is intact.

The survey was undertaken by Architectural Digest magazine and Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates, Tony Walton said. He is the managing broker for High Mountain Sotheby’s.

The survey reflects that 46 percent of respondents think their primary home value has remained constant in the past 12 months, and 26 percent think it has increased.

In the next year, the survey reports, 54 percent of million dollar homeowners plan to buy, sell, build or invest in a new home.

“At High Mountain Sotheby’s, we are seeing high-end properties continue to sell, but only when they are priced competitively based on closed comparable sales, not based on unreasonable expectations,” Walton said.

Beta Research Corp., on behalf of Conde Nast Publications, mailed the survey to 3,500 Architectural Digest subscribers who report a household income of more than $100,000 and a home valued at more than $1 million. The surveys were sent to households in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, Atlanta, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, San Diego, Denver and Detroit in late February and early March.

Correction

An article in the July 6 Steamboat Pilot & Today incorrectly reported that Ken Solomon of Beck Building Co. is the field superintendent for the construction of the Rivera home in Marabou Ranch Preservation Subdivision. Jim is the superintendent and Forrest Watson is the project manager for the Rivera home. Solomon is supervising another Beck project in Steamboat Springs.