New Yorker Cover, 1973
Even though numbers were a bit soft last year for Aspen, it was hardly doom and gloom, especially considering the massive tumult in the stock market.
As reported by the Aspen Times:
“All of Pitkin County rang up $1.8 billion in sales in 2018, down from $1.9 billion in 2017, based on figures from Land Title Guarantee Co. and Aspen Times research. The first quarter of 2018, however, registered $408 million in sales, well ahead of the $302 million Pitkin County posted in the first quarter of 2017.
But a downward trend ensued in the spring and summer, with some months posting double-digit percentage drops until October, which saw $224.3 billion in sales, 15.7 percent better than October 2017 and the highest sales-volume month of 2018.”
As broker Tim Estin noted in his comprehensive year-end analysis, 2018 was the, "third-best year of the past seven since 2012 in terms of sales dollar volume and unit sales."
In addition, Estin poo-pooed notions of a bubble-burst: "I remain cautiously optimistic, a term much over used, with this caveat. There is plenty of Aspen developer inventory remaining in the active listing pipeline that is aggressively and optimistically priced. It is priced accordingly due to limited inventory within their respective property category. New or new-built product continues to command premium pricing and there are solid comparables to justify the high prices.”
BJ Adams of Berkshire pointed out, “This is one of those relatively rare market cycles when it is a good time for both sellers and buyers to be in the market — sellers because low inventory means there's not a lot of competition, and buyers because prices are still mostly lower than 2008 levels."
Read the full article here.
