As summer wanes and the days are cooler, I’m being asked more frequently if the local real estate market is also cooling off. The answer is no… and yes. First, the yes part. Because there are so few homes on the market, and prices have risen so much, folks who are trying to buy a place have become a bit fatigued. They’re tired of losing “bidding wars” or having homes go under contract for sale before they can even get here. The pace of sales has also slowed because the inventory of homes for sale is so low that it’s difficult to find what a client is looking for, at a price they think is fair, so they stay on the sidelines – watching, waiting. For context, there are currently only eight homes for sale in the Paonia area, and just three of those are priced under $400,000.
Nonetheless, the demand for homes in our area is still greater than the supply, so anything new that comes on the market is sure to get attention, maybe a lot of attention – like fresh meat in a shark tank. After breaking all previous local sales records in 2020, it’s kind of mind-blowing how this year’s has eclipsed them. Residential sales volume in the North Fork area surpassed the $60 million mark in August, $23 million more than at the same point last year. That’s a whopping 62% increase – achieved by the combination of a 37% jump in the number of homes sold and a 19% rise in the average home price to $407,500! By comparison, the Delta market grew 17% with an average home price of $300,000, and Surface Creek is up 6% with an average home price of $325,000. Given that there is virtually no new development / new home construction, prices will likely continue to rise due to the ongoing imbalance between supply and demand.
Vacant land sales have also ballooned this year (up a whopping 65% across the county), but that pales when compared to the explosion of farm and ranch sales of $27 million ($21 million higher than at this point last year when the total was just $6 million). Most impressive is that more than half of the increase was generated by just four transactions! And, not included in these statistics because they were not MLS listed properties, were several other multi-million dollar transactions including hemp operations and the sale of Pleasure Park property located just west of Hotchkiss at the confluence of the North Fork and Gunnison rivers. According to Al DeGrange, owner & operator of Gunnison River Expeditions, there won’t be any obvious changes before mid-2022 as the new owners work on implementing their business plan. While I hope it will retain some of its funky Packers-bar character, it certainly has the potential to be developed into a fancy fly-fishing destination resort.
Commercial property transactions in the North Fork are exactly on pace with last year at $1.4M through August. Of the eleven properties currently offered for sale, five are restaurants (three of which are shuttered) and two buildings in Hotchkiss are priced in excess of a million dollars – a threshold which has never been surpassed in our area. Still, the mood on our main streets is certainly more upbeat than a year ago when the cloud of COVID hung more heavily.
With more “newcomers” circulating around the valley, it’s a good time for “locals” to demonstrate country hospitality, like saying “hi” as we pass by each other on the sidewalk and extending a finger or two above the steering wheel to passing motorists to help the transplants get the hang of i