2022 Real Estate Summary

Real Estate

Feb 9

Real estate summary provided Ben Broughton, Real Estate at Copper Mountain

2022 In Review

Instead of a January review this month I thought we could look at the larger picture. Overall, we are down in both total sale and dollar volume categories compared to 2021, but I don't think that's an indication of a softening market. Other key metrics continue to rise significantly. Let's jump right in and see what's what.

While the total number of sales dropped dramatically last year (43% fewer than 2021), the gross sales volume of $63M is only 19% off of 2021's numbers. In addition, the price per square foot continued to increase over 20% year on year. The days on market and sales price/list price ratio are both extremely strong. Therefore we can conclude that an appropriately priced home can still expect to sell very quickly. If a property sits on the market for more than a couple of weeks today, then that home is likely overpriced. In fact, the 2022 average days on market is skewed by one outlier that took 389 days to sell. Removing this one brings the average down from 22 to 14 days. Perhaps even more telling, 38 of the 55 sales went pending within 2 days of MLS entry. Of course, this number is a bit skewed by the volume of buyers we are matching up to homes before they hit the market. Today is still a big shift from historical Copper markets, where the average days on market hovered around a full year before selling.

Some have pointed to higher interest rates and uncertainty in the US economy to explain the dip in sales in 2022. While both certainly have an impact, I think their importance is overblown in our market. A more in-depth analysis shows that the underlying issue has been lack of inventory. With such a large number of sales occurring from 2020-22 (Roughly 15% of ALL Copper homes changed hands), we were bound to see a depletion of willing sellers. I believe the market will continue to be strong until available inventory increases substantially. It is likely that 2023 will see an increase in available homes (Only 8 as of this report), how large an increase is anyone’s guess.

Bottom line, If you’re a buyer today, you still need to be prepared to jump on a property if you find what you’re looking for. I don’t think we will continue to see the “bidding wars” of 2021 and 2022, but I’m equally confident that we won’t see prices drop this year either.

2022 By The Numbers

Total Sales: 55 sales
Average PPSF : $918
Average Days On Market: 22 days
Average Sales Price: $1,145,000

January By The Numbers

Total Sales: 4 sales
Average PPSF : $1,101
Average Days On Market: 39 days
Average Sales Price: $693,000

Current Market Conditions

There are currently 8 listings on the market today, a decrease of 7 since last month. However, this is a bit muddled as there were five A-Lift Neighborhood duplexes removed from the market without selling. I'm not reading anything into this withdrawal, as I believe it to be a repositioning move by the developer. We continue to remain steady, with the market holding below 20 listings for the past 12 months. Between January 1 and February 9th of this year, Copper saw 10 new listings, 6 of which are now under contract. This brings our pending sale count to 8, equal to today's active inventory.