Downvalley home prices going up

GARFIELD COUNTY — The median price of a single-family home in the lower Roaring Fork Valley continues to rise.

The median price of a home in Carbondale is $629,900, and it’s $470,000 in Glenwood Springs, based on sales data through July 2008.

Median home prices in Garfield County continue to reflect an increase over last year, though National Association of Realtors (NAR) statistics for July show a continued decline on a national level. Garfield County’s median home price, year to date, of $379,000 was 79 percent higher than the national median home price of $212,000, according to Land Title Guarantee Co.

Garfield County’s median price reflects a 5 percent increase over 2007. According to the NAR, the national median home price, year to date, reflects a decrease of 7 percent from 2007.

The numbers for Garfield County include Parachute, Battlement Mesa, Rifle, Silt, New Castle, rural Garfield County, Glenwood Springs and Carbondale. So far this year, the only area that trailed the national median was Battlement Mesa. With a median price of $194,450, Battlement Mesa was 8 percent below the national average. All other areas of Garfield County exceeded the national median by a minimum of 18 percent, according to Land Title.

Total property transfers in July matched June — 153 transactions were recorded in both months.

In total dollars, July saw $68,893,800 worth of sales, slightly shy of June’s $72,589,200.

For the year through July, transactions in Garfield County trail 2007 by 39 percent; there were 1,070 transactions in the first seven months of 2008, compared to 1,749 in 2007. For the year so far, 2008 total dollars lag behind 2007 by about 30 percent — $509,142,000 in 2008 versus $723,259,700 last year.

July 2008 sales in Garfield County, compared to the same month a year ago, showed a decline of 56 percent in total dollars and 51 percent in the number of transactions. July 2007 was, however, a strong month, producing the highest dollar volume in the past five years with $157 million for 312 transactions.

Pitkin County real estate sales Total sales in July were $124,468,744, down 23 percent from July 2007. July 2008 transactions totaled 66, down 30 percent from July 2007. Year-to-date sales through July 2008 totaled $841,292,376, down 47 percent. Year-to-date transactions totaled 519, down 32 percent. The average residential sales price was $4,271,726 and the median price was $3,500,000. There were 12 fractional sales in July 2008, down 45 percent fromJuly 2007. Fractional sales totaled $2,751,700 in July 2008, down 57 percent from July 2007. Year to date, fractional sales were down 41 percent, or $30,853, by the end of July. Year to date, the number of fractional sales was down 5 percent — 144 versus through July 2008, versus 151 in the first seven months of 2007. Source: Land Title Guarantee Co.

This article is a feature of Inside Business, published Tuesdays in The Aspen Times.