The scoop on real estate in Copper Mountain Colorado
Copper Mountain real estate is always interesting.
It doesn’t always reflect what is going on in the rest of the market in Summit County as a whole. It is almost exclusively a second home and vacation home market with few, if any, primary residences. Copper has more than 1550 condos, townhomes and single family homes with another 600 that could be built eventually. Recently some multi million dollar homes have been built in the Lewis Ranch area and they will skew the average sales price when they sell.
When trying to analyze the market, it is best to break it down by price range. As in most other areas, the lower priced property sells more than in any other price range. In 2006 there were 33 sales of condos under $300,000 at Copper Mountain. Today there are only five listed for sale, with three more under contract. What that means, if you have a condo in that price range that you would like to sell, is that you could expect that it would sell in less than two months. However, it depends on the time of year, as most sales at Copper Mountain occur in the latter half of the year. In 2006, 25 homes and condos closed in the first three months of the year and 20 closed just in the month of October. June, July and August had between 10 and 12 sales each month, and November had 11. 115 units sold in the entire year. The average per month was just under 10.
Between $300,000 and $400,000, 28 units sold, with eight currently listed for sale. At that rate, those eight owners could expect that their condos would sell within 3 1/2 months. 18 condos sold in the $400-$500,000 price range and eight are for sale currently, with an expected time of the market of 5.3 months. Jump up another $100,000 and now we are over a year in expected time on the market. 11 sold last year, one is under contract and 13 more are on the market. Here is where things get interesting.
Most Copper Mountain condos and townhomes are second homes.
For the most part, the owners do not have a need to sell, and they are not as motivated as someone who has to move because of a job change or because they bought another house. Second home owners can afford to carry the property and will wait to sell until the market comes up to their price. They often will look at the last sale, and set their price very optimistically above it, no matter what the market is doing. I can think of one particular condo that is priced $52,000 higher than the exact same unit that sold one floor above them last October for $430,000. It was listed four months after that sale at almost 12% higher. That is optimistic! Every Seller thinks that his or her property is better than everyone else’s. In truth, most of the newer condos at Copper are cookie cutter condos with the same furnishings. Even if someone spent a few thousand dollars adding granite counters and dressing it up a bit is it worth a 36% increase in a year? Most Buyers would say NO!
Between $600,000 and $1,000,000, there are 12 homes listed for sale, but only eight sold in that price range last year. The rate of sales is now up to 18 months, assuming that our sales rates continue as they did last year. However, the sales are not at the same rate so far this year, with 11 sales at Copper in the first quarter of 2008 versus 25 sales last year in the same time frame. So far in April (as of the 17th), four have closed and there were five sales last year, so the percentages might go up a bit after this month. It is hard to tell right now what will happen in our market this year as our Buyers start showing up in June. Watch this space for more information! I will update you as it happens.
As for higher priced Copper Mountain homes in the Lewis Ranch area,
four are currently listed for sale over $2,000,000 and there are two under contract, so it is obvious that the people who can buy high priced property are still doing so. There were no sales in that price range last year, so they are breaking new ground. Between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 there were four sales last year, with six currently on the market.
If you would like more history than just 2007, I did a post in February, 2008 about Ten years of Copper Mountain real estate sales.
May 6, 2008 we will be offering an off season tour of Copper Mountain properties
when they are not rented and are easy to see. We have a hard time showing them during ski season and in the summer as they are rented almost as often, and we cannot disturb guests. If you are interested in joining us, let us know and we can make arrangements to meet you.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:42 pm
[…] I have already written: a ten year history of sales of homes in Summit County, and another about real estate in Copper Mountain. Do you have questions about other parts of the county? Call or email me, […]