SUMMIT COUNTY - Summit County real estate sales in March were similar to 2003 figures, but local realtors say residential properties are moving faster than they've seen in some time.

The sentiment is corroborated by a 30-percent increase in the number of contracts written in Breckenridge last month over 2003.

Countywide, 378 properties sold last month and 434 went under contract. Sales on properties placed under contract last month will be realized in June, when the properties close.

"The number of pending properties is higher than it's been in a long time," said Bonnie Smith Allen of Exclusive Mountain Retreats Real Estate in Breckenridge. "The market is definitely stronger than it has been in the last few years, especially properties under $600,000."

Smith Allen said the number of properties placed under contract in Breckenridge is up by 30 percent over last year. In March, 130 properties sold in Breckenridge while 151 went under contract.

"For a long time we had a lot of people looking, many looking for a deal, and we were showing more properties than ever. But now we actually have people writing contracts, which is exciting," Smith Allen said.

Turk Montepare, a Breckenridge real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Bunchman, said he was busier than usual this quarter.

"As the winter ended, we saw some price decreases for properties that were in the rental market since the cash-flow season was ending," Montepare said. "It's something we see every year, but it has to be coupled with buyer demand."

Montepare said he was feeling an increase in buyer demand but that buyers are cautious.

"I think it's a reluctant seller's market to possibly lower their expectations and a cautious buyer's market," he said. "We seem to have more buyer activity, but it isn't 'I'm buying at any price.'"

The market was affected by falling stock prices after 9-11, but Smith Allen said the local market never was "soft," as had been publicized in the media. Rather, she dubbed the market "blocked" in the past few years as sellers generally would not lower prices and buyers were looking for a deal.

In the million-dollar-plus market, the quarter had a quick start, with five properties closing. Ninety-five properties currently are on the market for $1 million or more with an average time of 500 days to sell. In 2002, 139 high-end properties were for sale, while this past Christmas only 82 were available.

"A lot of people decided to live in homes that had been built for (speculation) or simply did not need to sell them so they waited," Smith Allen said.

While the high-end market before 9-11 was hot with dot-com buyers who tended to be in their 30s, today's high-end buyers are older couples with grown children and grandchildren, Smith Allen said.

"Two- and three-million dollar properties are springing up everywhere" in Summit County, Smith Allen said, indicating that the new high-end buyers are building to their specifications rather than purchasing existing homes.

Based on the increased activity, realtors say the market may be headed for an upswing.

"In terms of Frisco's market, it's as hot as I've seen it in a long time," said Chris Eby of Buyer's Resource Real Estate. "It's no longer a matter of months or weeks but days or hours that properties are turning over."

Eby said sales of resort condominiums, those units located at the base of ski areas, are busier than he expected.

"In Breckenridge, Keystone and at Copper, even that inventory is more active," he said. "You can still buy for less than what a seller paid in those overbuilt markets, but that's changing as well as the inventory is bought up.

"Baring any macro events such as terrorism and as long as interest rates stay stable, I think it will be a busy year," he said.

Kim Marquis can be reached at 668-3998, ext. 249 or kmarquis@summitdaily.com.