Spring is right around the corner, snow is falling, and everyone in my house is still not doing great at waking up an hour earlier. With Spring break coming up, one snow forecast is calling for 2-3' of snow in the high country between now and the end of the weekend, while the another is showing 3-5' in the high country and 2-3' in the mid to low elevations! Despite the weather, we've made it through winter and everyone is finally looking and feeling healthy, just in time for spring allergies to kick in! To make the change of seasons official, Ska is tapping Mexi Logger on the 27th!
 
February's data might raise some eyebrows, but I'm not too hung up on it yet. This time last year, I was talking about a frozen market, but once it thawed out it took off. Our market is typically slow this time of year, and I think it's reasonable to say that it's finally catching its breath before things should start kicking off in a month or so. If things don't get moving by the end of April, that's when we start talking market shift and expectations going into Summer, and we'll look back to now as the beginning of it. 

Median sales price in Durango finally took a break. I say it all the time, now is usually a good time of year to try to get a deal as prices are typically low. The kicker is, there's not that many options to choose from. But there's not that many people actively Buying either. The flip side for Sellers is sure, you can list now when you don't have that much competition on the market, but there's also not that many people looking right now. Of course this is a never say never industry, and soon as I give an absolute statement, I'll be proven wrong.

So here's the raised eyebrows part, starting with market inventory. Compared to this time last year, far more options on the table, 83% more active inventory this Feb vs last Feb. And despite the median sales price decreasing, and despite the extra inventory (which is still down from a pre-covid FEB19 amount of 323), sales are slow. Durango as a whole had the same amount of sales as last Feb, which had far less inventory, same rates, and slightly higher sales price. And then we have days on market:
 
Four straight months of an increase in DOM. In fact, the median last month, 105, is around the same amount from May/June 2020 as states were easing the stay at home orders. In other words, we haven't seen this many days on market since the end of a government mandated quarantine. That's not great!
The other statistic that caught my eye is in-town Durango had 10 sales in February and 10 sales in January. We haven't seen sales that low since 2011!  And with half of the amount of properties going under contract this Feb compared to last February, I'm doubting sales aren't going to look much better in March.

So, you can see why my eyebrows are raised. It's not a great time of the year to ring the bells and start talking about a market shift, but these figures do have my attention. If you're thinking about Selling, make no mistake, there is Buyer demand! But right now Buyers are feeling pretty scrutinous and juggling motivations. Due to lack of inventory and higher prices, many end up purchasing at the top of their budget, ldaving a minimum amount left to account for repairs, maintenance and updates. Which is why location and condition matters so much more now than the past few years. Four walls and a roof in of questionable condition in the middle of nowhere at a premium price isn't going to fly.  And if Buyers have to pay a Buyer's agent directly out of pocket, that's just going to further limit their purchasing power. So what we're currently seeing are cautionary signs: higher inventory and DOM, coupled with low sales and sales prices, all on top of higher rates and stagnant wages that continue to challenge affordability. So are these market trends going to continue, and shift our market back towards the Buyer's favor, or is it simply taking a breather before the next round of growth?