July 2021
Deep Dive with Heather Connor
The pandemic created a tremendous interest in vacation homes across the country. Quite frankly, it’s one of the first events I have seen locally that created this type of emotional reason for a mass number of buyers to purchase in our resort community of Crested Butte. With things such as work, school and social events being remote for the last year plus, it naturally created an environment where folks, who were financially able, wanted to spend that time near a vacation spot. Based on market demand and feedback from my resort realtor friends, resort areas located near the water, large and open space or the mountains (like us) were at the top of the list.
Our top five feeder markets for the state of Colorado have continued to transition based on tax migration records. The top incoming were as follows and in order of greatest incoming wealth to the least: California which brought the most incoming wealth, clocked in at $6.49 billion. Illinois, which was in second place, came in at less than half California at $3.10 billion. The remaining markets which were fairly close in incoming wealth were: New York, Texas and New Jersey.
| $6.49 billion | California |
| $3.10 billion | Illinois |
| $1.92 billion | New York |
| $1.71 billion | Texas |
| $1.17 billion | New Jersey |
However, Gunnison County, of which our markets of Crested Butte, Almont and Gunnison are located within were all within inner-Colorado. Our largest incoming market was from Boulder County at $9.54 million and from there and in descending order, Jefferson, Douglas, Garfield and Eagle County.
| $9.54 million | Boulder County, CO |
| $6.41 million | Jefferson County, CO |
| $4.52 million | Douglas County, CO |
| $3.14 million | Garfield County, CO |
| $2.36 million | Eagle County, CO |
Folks that are leaving Gunnison County are mainly transitioning to other Colorado Counties, the top one being Mesa County. Other outbound counties include Delta, Montrose, La Plata and Maricopa, AZ. Maricopa is the only out of state outbound market in the top five.
The 2021 Vacation Home Counties Report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows that the increase in vacation home sales will continue through the 2021 year.
Their findings show that vacation home sales are up 57.2% year-over-year during January – April 2021, compared the the previous 20% year-over-year change in total existing home sales.
In general, home prices rose more in vacation home counties, the median existing price rose by 14.2% compared to 10.1% in non-vacation home counties. This coincides with data released by Zelman & Associates on the increase in sales of second homes throughout the country.
As life returns to the new normal, the question will be if there is a rise in second-home sellers. As of now, there continues to be a lack of inventory and purchasers are leveraging the high equity in their current properties, utilizing the historically low interest rates and still driving towards a lifestyle choice of being in our beautiful mountains.
Folks still ask if the market will crash. While this video was recorded previously, analysts are still sticking to the same prediction that we are not in a housing bubble. Click here to view my Youtube on why this is not 2008 all over again.
What’s the Bottom Line
If you’re one of the many people who purchased a vacation home during the pandemic, you’re likely wondering what this means for you. If you’re considering selling that home as life returns to normal, you have options. There are still plenty of buyers in the market. If, on the other hand, you want to keep your second home, enjoy it! Current market conditions show that it’s a good ongoing investment.
Sources: KCM, Inc, How Money Walks, local CREN MLS data.
