The most expensive home sold in Summit County during 2024 went for roughly $1 million less than the most expensive home sold in 2023 — and $6 million less than the all-time record. 

A property in the Highland Subdivision just off Colorado Highway 9 in Breckenridge earned the title of most expensive home sold in 2024, with its price tag coming in at $10.9 million. The most expensive home sold in 2023 brought in $12 million, and the most expensive home ever sold in Summit County went for $17 million. 

While the highest-priced sale of 2023 ($12 million) trumps 2024, the second and third most expensive homes sold in 2024 both went for $2 million more than their 2023 counterparts.

While the second-most expensive home in 2024 sold for around $8.9 million, 2023’s second-priciest home went for around $6.9 million. Similarly, the third-most expensive home sold in 2024 went for around $8.8 million, while the third costliest sale in 2023 went for $6.5 million. 

Summit-based real estate agent Dishon Lutz said while Summit County’s market has moved away from “outliers” in the luxury market hitting price tags as high as $17 million, the median luxury home price continues to rise. 

He said the industry currently expects luxury homes to sell in the $8 million to $10 million range. Real estate agents may have become accustomed to this price range in 2024, but sellers weren’t. Real estate agents say there was a trend happening where sellers were setting their original listing price unrealistically high in 2024 after seeing record-breaking price tags in prior years. 

Sellers ruled the market from 2020-2022. Interest in the Rocky Mountains skyrocketed as wealthy city dwellers rushed to get some seclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic. The $17-million sale happened in 2021, when sellers tended to have a wider field of offers. 

Housing inventory is up in 2024, and there are more options for buyers to consider. The market has shifted, and price tags dropped while the average amount of days a property spent on market rose, which bolstered buyers’s power to negotiate.

“In 2024 we saw a lot more concessions and price cuts,” President of the Colorado Association of Realtors Dana Cottrell said.

The home sold with the highest price tag in 2024 was first listed at around $14.8 million before sellers bumped the price tag down to $12.8 million. The home ultimately sold for $10.9 million. Every property that earned a spot in 2024’s top five most expensive home sales was bought for less than the original listing price.

Alongside power of negotiation, buyers had more of an opportunity to shop around because inventory was up.

“(Particularly) for the luxury market, buyers had the ability to kind of pick and choose a little bit, and they could be choosy,” said Lou Cirillo, the real estate agent who represented the seller in the second most expensive home sale in 2024. 

Cirillo said buyers roaming the luxury market are not just focused on location these days, but are also looking for amenities like custom pizza ovens, heated driveways and wine cellars.

The luxury market trends weren’t overly indicative of real estate market trends in Summit generally during 2024, Lutz said. 

“From a local affordability perspective, you’re not seeing as much growth. If anything, you’re seeing a decline in pricing,” he said. “In the high-end luxury market, it’s more or less like people pulling, in my opinion, investments out of the stock market, or trying to put cash somewhere.”

The luxury market may have seen its median home price rise by a million dollars or so, but the market at-large saw a minimal median price increase year over year, with 2023’s median home price coming in just over $2 million and 2024’s average clocking in around $2.3 million, according to Land Title Guarantee Co.

Lutz said realtors are feeling more optimistic heading into 2025 than they were in 2024, mostly because it’s no longer an election year. He said the industry has long anticipated buyer hesitancy during election years, which has only been exacerbated in recent years.

Lutz said buyers are hyperaware during election years and are considering things like: “What should my investment look like? Am I going to see a better interest rate? Is my job secure?”

Real estate agents say, although it’s early, 2025 has already started out stronger than 2024.

Cirillo said he is interested to see if the demographics of the buyers in the Summit luxury home market shift in 2025. For many years, Coloradans and Texans were among the top groups buying luxury homes in the area. Cirillo said buyers from West Coast states have been showing more interest in Colorado markets and he wonders if that trend will grow, especially in light of the wildfires that plagued southern California at the start of 2025.