First Quarter Durango Real Estate Statistics-Comparative
For years I have been doing a comprehensive Durango Real Estate Statistical Analysis where I compare this year’s YTD statistics to the very same timeframe the year before. I do these every 3 months, so this analysis is for the first 3 months of 2013 compared to the first 3 months of 2012. The review is only for La Plata County homes, so Silverton Mancos and Cortez are not included. The review only covers homes priced at $100,000 and above in order to not include mobile homes in parks, the very low and condominiums, and timeshare or fractional sales. Based on the numbers that we’ve seen so far this year, I am quite optimistic. That is the same review that both Bob Allen and John Wells gave at our recent real estate forecast.
I’m not sure how to say this other than, WOW! The 1st quarter of 2013 showed La Plata County residential sales volume up 19.41% compared to the 1st 3 months of last year. The volume went from $50.5 million to $60.3 million. The average La Plata County residential sales price increased 4.56% from $341,000 to $357,000. All sales in the County… which would include commercial, vacant land and farm and ranch… increased 24.5% going from $60.1 million in 2012 all the way to $74.9 million in 2013 for the same 3 month timeframe.
As you can see by the chart below, there were as many sales in the $200,000-$400,000 price bracket as all of the other brackets combined with a total of 85 units sold in that price range compared to 169 units for all price ranges combined. The 85 units sold represented a 16.4% increase over the number of units sold last year in the same timeframe. The $400,000-$600,000 price bracket showed an increase from 32 units in 2012 to 40 units in 2013, which was a 25% increase in the number of units sold. The overall sales price to list price percentage was 95.63% this year compared to 93.18% last year. We are definitely seeing prices firming up and especially in the $600,000 and under price ranges.
We also saw a shortening of the absorption rate this year compared to last, going from 1.29 years down to 1.13 years. Remember that the absorption rate is the period of time it would take all active listings to be sold, assuming no additional properties come on to the market based on the current rate of sales. Inventory remains low with a total of 765 residential units available for sale compared to 763 last year at the same time.
I also track where people purchased, per the various $200,000 price increments. The 2 busiest categories both this year and last year, were the “Durango in town” and the “Durango rural” in the $200,000-$400,000 price bracket. We actually had fewer homes sell in town this year in that bracket but saw an almost doubling of the $400,000-$600,000 price bracket this year for in town homes. I think this is caused by 2 factors: (1) lack of inventory in that price range in town; and (2) homes that were $385,000 last year have now gone up above the $400,000 price. The increase in Durango rural sales, in my opinion, is partly a function of the lessening of gasoline prices. People are now a little more willing to drive to town than they were when gas was over $4 a gallon.
To see the full analysis which includes… number of units sold, average days on market, median days on market, sales to list price percentage, number of units currently available, the absorption rate, number of cash sales (no financing involved), the percentage of cash sales, and where all of the different properties were purchased… Please click on the following link that will take you directly to that chart. Durango 2013 First Quarter Stats
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