The possible dream: In Steamboat, buyers reach for luxury customs and a secluded, post-COVID lifestyle
“People saw this dream of being able to work from home in Steamboat as being possible sooner rather than later.”
For a picture of just how dramatically the Coronavirus shutdowns have changed Colorado’s real estate market, just look at a secluded custom home community with 63 acreage sites, six minutes from the lifts in Steamboat. Prices for finished homes there start from $4 million—but a third of those sites are already under contract, after what agents describe as an ‘explosion’ of buyers rethinking where and how they want to live, post COVID.
“The growth is just phenomenal,” says Suzanne Schlicht, Senior Vice President and Director of Sales for Alpine Mountain Ranch in Steamboat, who will show you those spectacular lots, along with some dazzling plans for ‘custom-market’ homes you could purchase now and be into by 2022.
Dramatic shift in market
This was all selling well last year, too; but the change in the market after the shutdowns has been dramatic. “The first week of June we started to see families coming to check out where they could recreate safely, wanting to get away from the city. They suddenly saw this dream as being possible sooner rather than later.”
Six months later, 17 of those sites have sold signs on them, with another three pending, with numbers of custom homes underway by renowned Yampa Valley architects. (You can tour one of those customs today and this week, as it nears its closing). Schlicht says that the increase in buyers from the Front Range, two-hours forty-minutes away, has been amazing; but that Colorado buyers are finding stiff competition from others coming from California, Florida, Texas, and Chicago, all wanting this same scenario.
You can make this happen for your family by either of two routes: pick a site and work with Alpine Mountain Ranch’s inhouse construction team and architects on a home paired to your style; or get involved with one of the market-home plans that are currently underway.
Either way, you’ll get a luxury custom home experience. “We offer a full designbuild approach, very detailed, and if you want to make modifications, we can do that,” says Dylan Cook, Vice President of Construction for Alpine Master Builders, the ranch’s on-site custom home company—chosen by all five buyers who closed on lots this year, all wanting its very personal approach.
You’ll see the setting, six minutes from the slopes or ten from downtown Steamboat’s dining scene; and the huge component of Alpine Mountain Ranch’s 1,216 acres that’s devoted to open space—with a 3-acre trout lake, a lavishly equipped horseback barn, and access to private fly fishing on the Yampa. New guest cabins and a clubhouse pool will follow.
Waiting isn’t an option, says Schlicht. “This momentum is going to continue,” she adds, already seeing a big increase of buyers following the holidays. “I believe it will sell out rather quickly.”