The Telluride Real Estate Market
Market Update
Despite volatility in the credit and nationwide housing markets during the last quarter of 2007, Telluride’s real estate marketplace has, once again, demonstrated resiliency. Gross dollar sales for that quarter were up 30% over the prior year. San Miguel County year-end gross sales of $756.6 million were bullish as well, exceeding the prior year by 11% and breaking the all time sales record of 2005 by 4%.
The bulk of sales were, of course, concentrated in Telluride Mountain Village ($345.4M) and the Historic Town of Telluride ($180.0M), comprising nearly 70% of the total of San Miguel County sales. Within Historic Telluride, single family homes were the market leader at $67.7M, followed by residential condominiums at $58.6M. Commercial sales recognized a 70% increase in dollar volume over 2006 at $26.9M. Within the Telluride Mountain Village, single family homes experienced sales of $144.7M (up 49.9%), followed by residential condominiums with a sales volume of $119.8M.
Team Smith enjoyed a very productive year, as well, with 27 transactions totaling $80,800,000. Five of those sales were between $7,400,000-$13,500,000 and another seven additional sales between $2,500,000-$5,500,000.
The graph to the right represents remarkable marketplace performance over the past two decades. In addition, San Miguel County real estate has performed at a compound annual growth rate (13%) in dollar volume over the last 10 years and at 15% in the past five years.
The volatility of the stock, financial and credit markets of 2008 has slowed sales in the Telluride Region. During the first four months of this year, the gross dollar volume of sales was $172.6M — 32% less than that same period in 2007. Notably, two other prime resort markets in Colorado are experiencing this same market sluggishness — during that same period Aspen (Pitkin County) witnessed a downturn of 49% and Vail 25% (Eagle County). Most importantly, however, the value Telluride real estate has historically remained stable, and in some cases even appreciated, during periods of national and global economic instability. Given a very limited supply of inventory relative to mainstream market areas and a vast majority of non-leveraged owners with significant equity and staying power, the Telluride market has never fallen prey to a discounting of price levels.
