The fantastic finale to 2012 in the Pitkin County real estate market has given way to a sluggish start in 2013. The total dollar volume of all real estate sales in January was down $15.15 million, or 15 percent, from January 2012, according to deeds filed with the Pitkin County Clerk and Recorder’s Office. The sales slump continued in February, with dollar volume down another $9.1 million, or 20 percent, according to deeds filed. For the two months combined, the market is down $24.25 million, or 17 percent.
Realtors said Friday that the surge in late 2012 and the slump in early 2013 are connected. A flurry of activity in the fourth quarter of 2012 was driven by changes in the capital-gains tax laws. Sales that would have been completed in January and February of this year were fast tracked in December. “Buyers and sellers were doing back flips to get closings done in the last days,” said Carrie Wells, a leading real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Mason and Morse Real Estate in Aspen. Work in December for real estate agents, title insurance companies and real estate attorneys was like “running a marathon,” she said.
Wells said she represented the buyers in one transaction in which an offer was made for a home on Christmas Eve with a closing on Dec. 27. The buyers knew they would benefit from a discount, so they agreed to a deal that skipped many of the due-diligence steps, and they allowed the sellers to remain in the property for six months, she said. Buyers aren’t willing to jump through hoops like that now, and sellers don’t have the incentive to reach an agreement because of higher taxes, Wells said. Therefore, activity has sagged.
Stewart Seeligson’s business education and diverse real estate experience set him apart from other real estate brokers in the Telluride region.