With a healthy national, state and local economy and eight years of steady growth in transactions that averaged a 15% increase year-over-year, why did the 2018 Steamboat Springs real estate market see a drop in transactions of 7%? A quick answer would be “Demand has dropped”. However, this drop of transactions may not be due to a reduction in demand, but a reduction in supply to meet demand. View the entire PDF of the 2019 report Here
Doug Labor, Broker Associate and Manager of the Steamboat Sotheby’s International Realty downtown office, breaks down the 2018 statistics and what they mean for buyers and sellers as we look forward to 2019.
In 2017 the Steamboat Springs Multiple Listing Service posted 1,373 transactions; fourth best recorded and highest since the 2008 crash. The 2008 market crash brought on a rash of listings in 2008, 2009 and 2010. It wasn’t until buyers started coming back in the market did the number of listings decline. From 2010 to 2016 listings declined 7% annually. However, in 2017 that percentage tripled to -21%, setting a stage coming into 2018 of the fourth lowest number of listings the MLS has seen.
Despite transaction decline, dollar volume increased 6% to $761 million; the second best in Steamboat MLS history. This is only the second time since 1996 this phenomenon occurred.
Less inventory led to less buying opportunities, and less buying opportunities led to fewer transactions in 2018. If lower demand was the reason, a reduction of property values would have been the result. However, the average price of all properties sold in the Steamboat Springs MLS increased 13% from 2017 to nearly $600,000; the second highest on record.