And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you. Time—perhaps only the force of gravity is as ubiquitous and undeniable. I bring this up because it’s now been ten years since the peak of the real estate boom in the North Fork. Does the term “Golden Triangle” ring a bell? If not, it’s probably because you’re new to the valley, or maybe you just had better things to do than get caught up in the hype of those halcyon days of yore. Back then, as a member of the local area planning committee, I was helping with the reviewing of multiple subdivision proposals monthly and hearing from the public how they feared our area turning into another Carbondale. Well, a good many of those lots are still for sale and the APC meeting has been canceled for lack of an agenda in all but a handful of months over the past few years. So while the market is still adjusting to clear the excesses of that boom, the numbers say we’ve turned the corner and are experiencing a slow and steady recovery.
Last year’s total county-wide sales through the local MLS of $114 Million represented 88% of the $130 Million in transactions recorded at the courthouse and was 36% higher than 2013’s total. That’s a nice jump. Meanwhile, the number of completed foreclosures in Delta County decreased by HALF! – to just 69. The three geographic area of the county, Delta, Surface Creek and the North Fork each had roughly the volume of residential sales, with Delta and Surface Creek posting $25million and $23million in the North Fork. Surface Creek’s numbers showed the most growth both in dollar volume (36%) and median price (13%). The number of homes on the market is virtually unchanged. Vacant land sale are a mixed bag with the North Fork and Delta areas turning in just half the dollar volume of last year ($800k in Delta and $3.2M in the North Fork) while the Surface Creek figure was 66% higher ($3.2M). Vacant lots in subdivisions are still a pretty tough sell, with existing houses going for less than half what it would take to build a new one. But, on the positive side of things, a number of larger parcels were snapped up by folks – usually from outside the area – with the capacity to build a new custom home. Commercial real estate sale had a nice bounce in 2014 – up 72% to $7.9M countywide. About half the total came from the sale of the Valley View shopping center and the former ProBuild site that now serves as the shipping point for marble. It was a good year for ranch sales too as I commented on in a previous article. Supported by strong cattle prices area sales topped $25 million – THREE TIMES the 2013 level. So, overall, it was a good year and with interest rates expected to stay flat or rise only slightly the improving trend should continue and we may finally begin to see home prices climb a little more
Finally, while it won’t contribute to “the numbers”, it is worth mentioning that the Electric Mountain Lodge now belongs to Youth with a Mission Denver. Most surprising is that it was a gift, donated. A couple weeks ago, a friend and I were heading up to ski when a snowmobiler on the road waved us down. “How far is it to Paonia?” he asked. “I need fuel and the lodge is closed.” Luckily they said that they had enough to get home if they turned around instead of doing the full ride as planned. Whew.
(This article was also published in the Merchant Herald.)