Vail Valley’s $ 418M August sales sets a record; most buyers locals

After a near- shutdown of the Vail Valley’s real estate market in April, May and June, numbers since that time have come roaring back, with August setting a new record for the value of real estate sales in Eagle County.

The August sales total was a staggering $ 418 million. That total dwarfs monthly sales figures dating back to 2014. Only April of 2017 cracked the $ 300 million mark.

The August sales total shattered the previous monthly record of $ 361 million, set in 2005.

How big was August? If you throw out the $ 57.25 million single- buyer cash sale of a duplex near the Vail Interfaith Chapel, August’s sales still roughly tie the old record.

There was a significant amount of action in the market’s upper reaches, with 11 August sales of $ 5 million or more. Still, a look at where buyers are coming from matches the figures of the past several years. For a long time, the largest slice on the pie chart of where buyers come from has been Eagle County residents. That piece of the pie is always a bit more than 50% of all buyers. The same was true in August.

Didi Doolittle, the Eagle County sales manager for Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate, said the pandemic may have fueled local buyers as well as those from outside the valley.

With people spending more time at home, Doolittle said many residents either “fell in love” with their current homes, or found things that no longer worked for their families.

Combine that with continued low mortgage rates, and people were on the move.

Another part of the buyer equation seems to be people who own second homes in the valley, but want to move into more substantial dwellings.

“A lot of people who have had homes here now intend to spend more time here,” LIV Sotheby’s International Realty Vail Valley Managing Broker Dan Fitchett said..

Doolittle noted that recently there were more homes under contract than there were homes available in the Multiple Listing Service.

Slevin said he expects the number of September sales to match or exceed those recorded in August.