Although the rest of Colorado seems to have a slowing housing market, Garfield County remains a sellers market, though there are some signs of slowing here, as well. 

“It’s still a sellers market,” Glenwood Springs Realtor and Glenwood Association of Realtors member Erin Bassett said. “The amount of new listings that we normally have that come on the market in the April and May timeframe, aren’t coming on the market. We’re struggling with a lack of inventory, which is keeping the prices up.”

Bassett said that the mortgage interest rate has not affected the county too terribly. 

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Single-family homes had 69 new listings in April with 216 new listings since April 2022. Current housing stock in Garfield County has 116 homes, according to the Colorado Association of Realtors April report. 

The median housing price of $775,000 and an average of $976,636 is still a hike from the median of $595,000 and an average price of $748,367 at this time last year. 

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“The median sales price is so high that you have knocked out a lot of that younger first-time homebuyers in that price range and the lower price range under $500,000, especially in Glenwood,” Bassett said. 

Silt and Rifle are in the more affordable price range right now, while New Castle has become less affordable. One change Bassett said she has seen is sellers buying down the high interest rates. 

“Instead of seeing a lot of inspection items, sellers are purchasing or buying down the interest rate anywhere from $8,000 to $12,000 to get the buyer a better interest rate for the first two to three years of the loan,” she said. “Hopefully, then they can refinance and be in a better position with that interest rate.”

Townhomes and condos saw 25 new listings in April, with 75 new listings since April 2022. Current housing stock in Garfield County has 116 homes. 

A median housing price of $390,000 and an average of $713,250 also showed a constant climb from the median of $452,000 and an average of $515,765 in 2022. 

Statewide, the median sales price flattened out between $400,000 and $450,000 in fall 2022, while it continued to spike in Garfield County from being less than the statewide median sales price, jumping from around $400,000 to above $460,000 since fall of last year. 

The median sales price for a single family home peaked at above $560,000 at the end of 2022, and looks like it has gone down slightly since the beginning of 2023. 

Garfield County had a brief downward turn in the median sales price for single-family homes at the beginning of the year, but began showing an upward slope again, currently at more than $610,000 in the April report.

Although the market in the valley isn’t slowing as quickly as the rest of the nation and state, it has dramatically eased up since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

There is far less of the “craziness” that was seen during and immediately after the pandemic. People buying really high above asking price, escalation clauses, waving of appraisals and inspections have all mostly stopped, Bassett said. 

“I think the only sign of any kind of softening that we’ve seen or buyer exhaustion is, in the days on market,” Bassett said. 

The inventory of active listings has been consistently decreasing since an all-time high of more than 800 in June 2010 to a little more that 100 in the beginning of 2023, but houses are starting to spend closer to 100 days on the market, according to data included in economist Nathan Perry’s presentation at the Glenwood Springs Chamber’s 2023 Economic Forecast and State of the Community event May 8.

July has the shortest average for days houses stay on the market in Garfield County, reaching lows of 20 in 2021 and 30 in 2022. The number of months’ supply of housing inventory in Garfield County is showing a slight increase since 2021 and 2022.

Post Independent city and business reporter Cassandra Ballard can be reached at cballard@postindependent.com or 970-384-9131.