YOUR AD HERE »

Luxury housing sales boom in Summit County ahead of busy summer months

$10.1 million, single-family home at 382 Timber Trail Road, Breckenridge.
Hugh Carey / hcarey@summitdaily.com

If the first six months of the year are any indication, this could be the summer of luxury housing sales for Summit County.

While winter is typically the slowest time for the local real estate market, the county has seen a healthy uptick in the number of luxury homes sold year to date, with the Summit Association of Realtors reporting 144 luxury homes sold from Jan. 1 to June 7 of this year, up from 126 during the same time period last year.

The spike in the number of luxury homes sales has many real estate pros feeling rosy about what’s to come, especially as the market starts to ramp up again for the busy summer.



“Yes, the evidence is clear, the appetite for luxury homes in Summit County continues to expand,” Real Estate of the Summit owner and broker Dennis Clauer wrote in an emailed response to the newspaper.

Clearly, Summit County remains a highly desirable destination to own property, with rising prices and a limited number of active listings being two of the most pervasive forces driving the market today. And based on figures provided by the Summit Association of Realtors, April was another solid month for the county’s real estate market, especially with 32 luxury homes sold — eight more than April 2018.



A luxury home is defined as any home that sells at $1 million or more, and April’s spike follows month-over-month gains in the numbers of luxury homes sold in February and March. The trend of rising luxury sales also has continued into May, as the Summit Association of Realtors found that month brought 33 luxury housing sales, compared with 26 in May 2018.

Top 5 housing sales of April

$10.1 million, single-family home at 382 Timber Trail Road, Breckenridge

$2.43 million, single-family home at 863 Rodeo Drive (CR 2402), Summit County

$2.35 million, single-family home at 159 Sage Drive, Highlands at Breck, Breckenridge

$1.98 million, single-family home at 790 Whispering Pines Circle, Blue River

$1.79 million, single-family home at 283 Silver Queen Drive, Breckenridge

Source: Summit County Assessor’s Office

April real estate by the numbers

Total real estate sales: 152

Total real estate sales (April 2018): 162

Total volume of sales: $115,085,629

Total volume of sales (April 2018): $109,072,510

Number of sales at or above $1 million: 32

Number of sales at or above $1 million (April 2018): 24

Source: Summit Association of Realtors

According to Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate, luxury housing sales across Summit County were up 27% through May of this year and are tracking on pace with the high-water mark established in 2017.

But why are luxury sales so hot? Clauer thinks it could have something to do with the location and lifestyles of Summit County.

“Summit County is attracting more high-end buyers on a continual basis as they demand year-round abundant recreational amenities from skiing, riding, snowshoeing to hiking, biking, fishing, boating and golfing,” Clauer wrote. “Summit County, unlike any other Western United States mountain resort area, offers the diversity and extraordinary acreage and terrain of six world-class ski areas within 45 minutes of one another as well as a summer recreation scene to match.”

He added that luxury buyers often demand high-end design, functionality, quality construction and convenience from their investments, and the county has proven it can deliver on all of those at lower price points than Aspen, Vail or Telluride.

The actual number of housing sales still lags behind or at levels seen in previous years. At the same time, the overall sales volume — or combined value of all housing sales — continues to rise. Even though the number of actual sales has been stagnant, rising housing prices have more than made up the difference to produce increasing sales volumes.

Focusing on luxury housing sales, it should be noted that the average price of a single-family home in Summit County has reached $1.1 million, which leaves some to wonder if it isn’t time to update the definition given so many properties qualify as “luxury.” Still, Clauer said there were 11 homes priced over $2 million sold year to date in 2014, and this year there have been 34 of those sales.

As previously reported, April was led by a record-setting, seven-bedroom home at 382 Timber Trail Road, Breckenridge, that sold for $10.1 million. The home features more than 6,500 square feet of living space, and the sale closed April 18 after the home originally was listed for more than $12 million.

April’s record-breaking sale was flanked by a $2.43 million single-family home on 20 acres north of Silverthorne and a $2.35 million home in the high-dollar Highlands neighborhood in Breckenridge. Those were followed by an almost 6,500-square-foot home in Blue River for $1.98 million and a 3,293-square-foot home in Breckenridge for $1.79 million.

Other interesting transactions detailed on the Summit County Assessor’s Office report for April, the most recent month for which the report is available, include the Country Boy Mine at 542 Country Boy Road in Breckenridge.

Records show the old mine — which used to produce gold, silver, lead and zinc but has since become a local tourist attraction — changed owners for $2 million in April. The Summit Daily first reported on the Country Boy Mine in early April, but details of the sale were not initially disclosed.

Another big-ticket item — the $6.25 million sale of the Village Hotel in Breckenridge — marked the second-most expensive property transaction of the month.

Additionally, a warehouse property at 257 Annie Road in downtown Silverthorne went for $1.8 million in April. Records show the same property sold for $1.5 million in December 2011.

Silverthorne also saw the sale of a property listed as “special purpose land” at 299 Blue River Parkway. It went for $2.62 million and houses the Stinker gas station and convenience store.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.