The snow-covered mountains look like a picture postcard, and it’s chilly out there!
This morning it was -6 degrees, the coldest day of the winter so far. I have a whole bunch of snow in my front yard – I’m guessing about two feet. Personally, I’m not a big fan of the white stuff, but I’m loving the moisture which is desperately needed to help with our drought. The town is full of tourists, and they are really enjoying our winter wonderland.
The skiers at Wolf Creek got 89” of snow out of this latest storm, which was just what the doctor ordered. We should be in really good shape for the upcoming Winterfest, which begins January 21 and runs through January 23. I just spoke to the Chamber of Commerce, and it sounds like the merchants in town did well this holiday season.
Now for the latest real estate news. Total sales for the year in 2021 were up 23%. Home sales were down 5%, and condo sales were down 7%, but vacant land sales where up a whopping 63%. The month of December was down somewhat with a combined 85 sales in 2021 compared to 124 in 2020.
Home inventory is ridiculously low. At the moment, we only have 50 homes available for sale. Compare that to the pre-pandemic number of 195 back in 2019. If you look at homes priced under $500,000, we only have 10 available today compared to 83 in 2019. There are only 3 condos on the market today versus 26 two years ago.
As I mentioned, land sales for the year ended up 63% over the previous year. There were 713 sales in 2021 compared to 437 sales in 2020 and 345 sales in 2019. Make sure to check out all the charts and graphs provided below. They can tell you quite a story.
Mortgage rates have risen slightly. A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is currently 3.375% and a 15-year is 2.5% We are expecting the Fed to raise interest rates two or three times this year, which may cause mortgage rates to rise as well, but we’ll wait and see. The experts have been predicting higher rates now for years, and so far it hasn’t happened.
As you can see, there’s a severe shortage of real estate inventory out there. I am searching high and low for homes, condos, and land to sell.
If you are ready to cash in for a big payday, let me know!
Pagosa Springs real estate agent Lee Riley has regularly been one of the area's top selling Realtors® in recent years and offers a wide selection of real estate facts and information on his web site at ISellPagosa.com