Eagle County’s real estate market shows strength heading into 2025

The final numbers will take a few weeks to deliver, but the local real estate market has had a pretty good year.

In a recent report to the Colorado Association of Realtors, Vail Board of Realtors member Mike Budd noted that year-to-date sales through November were up by 8.9% over 2023.

“We’ve been surprisingly busy,” said Michael Slevin, president and owner of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Colorado Properties. That activity is particularly surprising given that the market in the rest of the state and nation is a little slower, he added. Home sales around the U.S. are down, Slevin said, but the Vail Valley’s sales have been strong, helped along by sales of condos at the Front Gate and One Riverfront projects in Avon.

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Slevin said he expects this year’s market to show increases in both unit sales and dollar volume, which shows continued demand for Eagle County property.

That said, Slevin said his brokers have had to counsel sellers about pricing, “knowing that gone are the days of appreciation gains in the heart of (the COVID-19 pandemic).”

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Still, Slevin said, “If properties are priced to the market, there’s a buyer, if not more than one,” for a property.”

For buyers, Slevin advised if they find a property they like, they should consider a purchase, since he expects prices to continue to rise.

While the U.S. Federal Reserve Board has cut interest rates twice this year, and is expected to announce a couple of cuts in 2025, Slevin said he doesn’t expect rates to dip much below 6% for most buyers. That’s still below the historic average, he noted.

In the valley’s non-resort areas, it’s a quieter time of year, but activity remains strong in the resort areas.

Longtime resort-area real estate specialist Ron Byrne, founder of the brokerage that bears his name, said he’s had an exceptional 2024, selling homes for record prices on Vail’s Rockledge Road, in the Golden Peak area and at Beaver Creek’s Strawberry Park.

“Everyone is literally doing well,” Byrne said, adding that his company recently paid $20 million for a property on Beaver Dam Road in Vail that he plans to redevelop into a duplex.

Barring unforeseen circumstances on the national or international scenes, Byrne said he expects that market strength to continue into 2025.

But, Budd noted, that strength may be unique to the Vail Valley.

“Some other parts of Colorado are not doing so well,” Budd said. “What I’m finding is that Colorado is having market-by-market variables.”

Budd added that while the state’s resort markets tend to be lumped together, those variables apply there as well.

“That’s much more evident than it used to be,” he said.

The good news, at least locally, is that “we’re doing well, despite our lack of inventory under $1 million,” Budd said.