Four ski areas, Breckinridge, Keystone, Copper Mountain and Arapahoe Basin, offer cross-country skiiing, ice skating, hiking, and biking all in a pristine Alpine environment. Also included is Lake Dillon where you can add boating and fishing, say local Realtors.

"Dillon sits on the banks of Lake Dillon, a reservoir with 26 miles of coastline and the highest fresh water sailing lake in the country," boast Realtors Ken and Mary Deshaies.

The area in general is slowly correcting from a buyer's market.

"The first half of 2002 is done and gone and the results are promising," say the Realtors. "The overall numbers are coming up. The sales are coming up. Summit County sales for the 1st quarter were down about 19 percent. The second quarter has corrected that downturn somewhat. The entire county is still down about 0-2 percent in sales for the first half of 2002 as compared to the same period of 2001 - a move up! This move up is a very, very positive movement. Hopefully, it is a trend of what may come in the 3rd and 4th quarters of this year.

They explain, "The areas that are still substantially down are Park County or out-of-county sales, by 14 percent. Keystone sales are down as well - by around 20-22 percent, if we include a couple of complex sales in River Run that occurred in 2001. If we take out the complex sales in 2001 for Keystone, then those numbers are up by around 26 percent. Frisco and Copper Mountain sales combined are about 4 percent less than what they were in 2001. But, sales are moving up (at least they did for the 2nd quarter of this year) as the same area was down 14 percent for the 1st quarter of 2002 compared to the same period for 2001. Sales moved in the positive direction for Frisco in the 2nd quarter.Sales are up in Breckenridge by about 2 percent, and up in Dillon, Silverthorne, Summit Cove and Wildernest by 5 percent. In short the County sales are increasing."

Realtor Kim Stevenson says, "Right now is a great time to be a buyer. Interest rates are now at their lowest level in over 40 years! We have a good inventory of condominiums, townhomes, and single family homes for sale. Since mid-August 2002, there has been a substantial increase in buyers putting properties under contract. Year-to-date, sellers are receiving approximately 95-96 percent of their asking prices on average. With 80 percent of Summit County being National Forest land, our privately owned land is very limited. There is currently a good choice of building sites available, with sellers receiving approximately 91percent of their asking prices year-to-date."

Adds Realtor Tom Driemeyer, "We are now into our second year of falling sales and sellers have accepted the competitive market conditions. Not many are accepting lowball offers but they are negotiable and lowering prices. With interest rates and the slowdown in sales you may never see a better time to buy your Rocky Mountain dream home."

"Our market is soft, but seems to be improving," says Realtor Joanne Hanson, "Our biggest problem at the moment is that we have too much inventory; a little over a year's supply at the current rate of sales! That condition is gradually improving but prices are being held down as a result. Some areas are better than others, with Breckenridge, as of September 9, having 917 residential units on the market. As of this date, 330 have sold with another 152 being under contract and waiting to close. Keystone is next with 452 units on the market, 118 sold, and 87 under contract.

"Even though these areas have lots of inventory, they are active and are selling," she says. "Copper Mountain has the slowest market at the moment, with 138 units on the market, 27 sales closed and 9 under contract. At that rate it will take almost 3 years to sell the existing inventory. The Keystone market has had many units selling for less than people paid for them just a couple of years ago, but Copper has not yet seen much of that. Perhaps that is why Keystone is more active and only has about 18 months of inventory! Frisco seems to be one of the more active markets with only 174 units on the market, 118 sales and 67 under contract. The Silverthorne area had 231 sales so far this year with 86 more under contract and 241 actively listed. Dillon has 211 active listings, 40 under contract and 127 sold.

"The inventory glut seems to be in the higher end homes, with 167 listings over $1,000,000 and only 22 sales so far this year and 8 more under contract," says Hanson. "At that rate it will take us almost four years to sell the existing homes in this price range on the market. In 2001, we sold 51 homes in this price range, with 38 sales in 2000 and 29 in 1999. At the present rate we should sell more than 2000, but slightly less than 2001, so overall it isn't bad."

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Published: September 13, 2002

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