Coronavirus-related restrictions may limit ski season this year, but that hasn’t stopped home sales from surging in popular ski town areas. Home prices are rising quickly in these areas as more residents flock to them amid the pandemic.
“This was the busiest summer selling season ever,” Ben Fisher, a broker with Summit Sotheby’s International Realty in Park City, Utah, told The Wall Street Journal. Sales of single-family homes over $2 million surged 50% from March to August compared with the same time a year ago.
The markets are growing fiercely competitive. In Park City, just days after a home was listed, it sold for all cash and $350,000 higher than its $15 million asking price.
In the ski town of Telluride, Colo., the dollar volume of homes sales jumped 54% through the month of August compared with a year earlier. In August, $125 million in home sales occurred there—a one-month record for the area. In Aspen, sales are up and their dollar value has grown by 49% compared to a year ago. Since March 1, 46 homes have sold for more than $10 million and 24 are under contract, The Wall Street Journal reports.
In Jackson Hole, Wyo., the total number of sales over $3 million is up 55% compared to a year ago. Twenty-one homes have gone for $10 million, compared to five such sales in 2019.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” David Viehman, a broker with Engel & Völkers in Jackson Hole, told The Wall Street Journal. “The high end is flying off the shelf.”
During lockdowns amid the pandemic, Americans started to flee cities in search of homes with more connection to the outdoors. Kristen Barber, a broker with Stein Eriksen Realty in Park City, told The Wall Street Journal that what had started as requests for long-term rentals in April accelerated into sales in June.
Source: “Home Sales Surge in Resort Towns Even as COVID Looms Large Over Ski Season,” The Wall Street Journal (Oct. 1, 2020) [Log-in required.]
