Welcome to the dog days of Summer! I was looking through some of my past stats and communications, and it feels like yesterday that I was just talking about how Spring was feeling unusually cold and wet, but have no fear as Ska was just about to tap their Mexi Logger... and now here we are in the height of festival season and Euphoria right around the corner.
I know it seems early, but now is a good time to fire up your furnace and make sure it's ready for another winter season. Better to schedule an HVAC guy now when they're available and you don't really need one, than waiting for the end of October when it's cold and they're booked out for a month. The same goes for your fireplace or wood stove; an inspection and cleaning costs less than $150, and is money well spent for the peace of mind. Both systems got some prolonged use after this past winter, and writing this out is serving as a reminder to myself as well!

Our market is weird; or the politically correct industry term: "shifting". Last winter things really slowed down, new inventory was minimal, and the shock of interest rates kept folks at bay; and not to mention folks feeling socked in by the snow. Looking at the big picture at the above charts, there were deals to be made. Despite the lower amount of new listings, it appears the existing inventory on the market had some sellers that were motivated to close, as reflected in the lower YTD sales price through March. At the time I said things were teetering, and I don't think things are going to crash here, that Durango and La Plata County already weathered the hit of higher rates, and if you're in the market to buy, unfortunately for you, I was right about something. Once April hit, folks that were waiting for the market to indicate a shift in their favor, or simply for the snow to melt, made their move. This past April was the highest median sales price recorded in Durango.

Yet, we're down in inventory, we're down in sales, rates are up, and somehow, Durango's YoY median sales price has increased by 19%!
The demand to live in Durango, despite whatever impact last winter and the return-to-the-office mandates had, remains strong. But, our month's supply of inventory has steadily increased since last August, from 2.8 to 4, indicating a shift away from a Seller's market. Yet the median sales price in August in Durango of $775K was the 2nd highest on record, behind this past April, despite the 30yr fixed national average landing around 6.5% then.

So yeah, our market seems confused. Taking a deeper look, one thing became quickly apparent: 4 bedrooms are hot! While the median sales price of a 3br in Durango increased 3.4% YTD, 4 bedrooms increased by 11% YTD. So what's next? This shift away from a seller's market based on month's supply of inventory, is that going to taper sales prices like we saw last winter? As the new listings begin to dwindle, will we see some deals on existing inventory? Or, if you look at historical trends, some of the highest monthly sales prices were over fall- are we going to see another record month in 2023?

Enjoy the rest of your Summer!