Here’s how the pandemic-fueled real estate boom is still making impacts in Summit County’s

Predicting trends in the real estate market in Summit County is a bit trickier in the 2020s compared to the 2010s, according to experts.

Events in the late 2010s and early 2020s, namely a global COVID-19 pandemic, skewed the real estate market across all property types. It also had lasting impacts that cause unpredictability in certain markets.

Even though the luxury market has variable trends, there’s one that real estate agents have been able to count on. Prices are continuously skyrocketing for single-family luxury homes even when there’s plenty of competition. 

Summit Real Estate owner Allison Simson said the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in what she called the “unicorn years” for luxury real estate. The unicorn years kicked off at the end of 2020 and lasted until 2022. Simson said this time frame created some unrealistic expectations for brokers. 

Following the height of the pandemic, she said the demand for luxury homes in Summit was unlike ever before. People were looking to leave cities and were more than willing to pay to do so. It was the epitome of a perfect seller’s market. With limited inventory on the market and unprecedented demand, prices could reach a new high. 

Simson said while the unicorn years have passed, their impacts can still be felt on the luxury market. 

“Prices shot up 15 to 20 to 25% a year. … Properties appreciated at an unrealistically high rate,” Simson said.

She said the appreciation rates have created situations where a home that was $2 million in 2019 can now be sold for as much as $4 million in 2024. She said she is unsure whether the trend will keep up. 

“I don’t know if the appreciation rate is natural enough that it’s gonna hold,” she said.

Simson said as time goes on, even the upper-middle class is slowly being pushed out of the luxury home market because buyers with high incomes are showing more interest in the area. On top of that, cash deals are more prevalent than ever before with around half of all luxury real estate deals, Simson estimates, being paid in cash.

Dana Cottrell, a realtor for the Summit Resort Group and president of the Colorado Association of Realtors, said with this new era of luxury home buyers, the days of a luxury home costing in the $1 million range are long gone. She said she now considers around $2.5 million and above to be the luxury real estate price range for the area. 

Cottrell said despite the luxury market being unpredictable these days, one thing the industry can count on is prices continuing to climb, even at times where there’s ample inventory, breaking the theory of supply and demand. 

Summit’s real estate market, at-large, tested the supply-and-demand theory this past May, when Altitude Multiple Listing Service data showed an increase of homes on the market and an increase in price. 

In May 2023 Summit saw 183 new listings come online. In May 2024 it saw 267 new listings come online. Despite the inventory rate rising around 36% year over year, the average price of a single-family home jumped 33% in Summit County from May 2023 to May 2024, making the new average price for a single-family home in the $2.4 million range. Additionally, the amount of time new listings stayed on the market also rose year over year by 30%.

Simson said some Colorado real estate professionals are looking to the influx of tech professionals moving to the Front Range as a reason for increased demand remaining steady for luxury homes in mountain areas. 

“That’s likely part of the reason that our prices are staying solid, even though we’re seeing increased inventory,” Simson said.

Editor’s note: This story originally published in the June/July Summit County Home magazine.