External factors well beyond our boutique regional market (volatile equities, China trade concerns, national political gridlock, etc.) have imposed some uncertainty in the minds of some of those seeking the sanctuary of a second home mountain investment. On the other hand, there are still those that place family lifestyle and a solid real estate investment a notch above a “zip lock” on paper liquidity.
The first quarter of 2019 yielded a 4% increase in gross dollar sales ($114.8M vs. $110.3M) over that same period of 2018, despite that quarter riding the “coat tails” of the new tax law and a burgeoning economy. In fact, March sales demonstrated a 16% increase in gross dollar sales over the prior March suggesting that momentum is on an upswing. Overall, transactional numbers are almost exactly the same quarter to quarter. Sales in the Town of Telluride (48.1M vs. $37.8M) continue to demonstrate strength with an increase of 27% (Gross Dollars). Although Telluride Mountain Village condominium sales remained stable with $27.2M in sales, the lack of numbers of sales of single family homes was factor in that market’s decline of 20%. The balance of the Telluride Region received renewed investor focus with a 32% increase (Gross Dollars — $22.37M vs. $16.9M).
It is certainly noteworthy that looking back March to March over a two year period that sales on the upper end of the pricing spectrum in the Town of Telluride homes (above $1000 PSF) are holding value with 18 sales during each those periods at nearly identical average PSF’s in excess of $1200. The sale Telluride condominiums experienced almost identical results for these time periods with 12 sales each at an average PSF of $1172. This would certainly lead one to believe that values are stable, and with several condo projects under construction garnering higher contracted prices, values could very well be on the rise.