Both Pitkin and Garfield counties saw dramatic increases in dollar volume compared to January 2006. Transaction volume for Pitkin County was down from 2006 primarily due to the large volume of Hyatt closings last January.

Nationally, the news is not so clear. With a sharp decrease in new home construction, concerns are focusing on how the housing downturn could last well into this year and eventually affect the wider economy. Conversely, the slowing in new homebuilding in January (down 14.3 percent from December 2006 and down 37.8 percent from January 2006) could eventually speed up a recovery by reducing inventory of unsold homes.

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that existing-home sales in most states were down from year-ago levels in the fourth quarter. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of existing home sales was down to 6.24 million units in the fourth quarter from 6.94 million in fourth quarter of 2005, a 10.1 percent decrease. Only six states saw an increase from the fourth quarter of 2005; Colorado experienced a 12.5 percent decrease.

The Roaring Fork Valley marches to the beat of a different drummer. January's huge increase in dollar volume makes that clear, and with the usual suspects (inventory, geography and national demographics) not changing, we will continue to see increased demand and upward pressure on prices into the foreseeable future.

Garfield County

Garfield County followed closely in Pitkin's footsteps, reporting a dollar volume increase over last January of 73 percent. Total dollar volume was at $92 million compared to $53 million in 2006. Garfield County, unlike Pitkin, did show an increase in number of transactions as well, with a total of 237 over last year's 158.