A rare window for buyers & sellers
This is a rare window in the Steamboat Springs real estate market. Shifting macro conditions, a wave of new base-area development, and a resale market still priced well below replacement cost are converging into some of the best buying conditions we've seen in three years, alongside a market that remains stable for sellers.
Here's what this report finds:
New development at the base area, led by The Stockman Auberge Collection, is pushing new-construction pricing toward $3,500 per square foot and reshaping what buyers see as good value in existing inventory.
The gap between older and newer mountain properties has widened significantly since 2021, and existing ski-in/ski-out inventory available now is priced well below new construction.
Single-family inventory has modernized considerably since 2020.
The Steamboat resale market remains well below replacement cost, a rare position heading into a major development cycle.
On the surface, increasing inventory, rising days on market, and stabilizing prices might look like headwinds for the Steamboat Springs real estate market. But as we write this mid-year report, we're genuinely excited about where things are headed over the next couple of years.
Steamboat Springs and other mountain towns were hit with a double whammy this year: a poor snow season and an unstable macroeconomic environment that put buyers on the sidelines for what we're confident was a temporary period.
With the stock market at all-time highs, tech industry growth, and oil prices stabilizing, we're seeing buyers step back into the market, excited about the ownership options available across every price category. Steamboat has been driven by the theme of scarcity since the pandemic. Scarcity applies to nearly every facet of our market, from available inventory to local resources in the construction industry—materials, land, you name it.
Between the announcement of The Stockman Auberge Collection at the base area and the growing conversation around Discovery Land Company's Stagecoach Mountain Ranch project, Steamboat is reaching a far broader audience than ever before. It’s undeniable that Steamboat is maturing as a real estate market.
While many people would like Steamboat to stay as it's always been, it's hard to keep people away from amazing places to live and recreate. The genuine character of the community and the proximity of recreational opportunities, from skiing and biking to pickleball and the arts, mean the opportunities available in Steamboat have never been more diverse or plentiful.
Markets don't move in a straight line from a pricing perspective. They tend to move in leaps and lulls, with different segments pushing or pulling on relative value. That push and pull has been clear in our market since 2020. The biggest example of this has been apparent at ski area properties.
In 2021, we saw significant demand for properties priced below $1 million and $1.5 million, particularly older mountain properties like The West and Storm Meadows, built in the 1970s. Their price per square foot was climbing toward the price per square foot of newer, higher-end buildings like One Steamboat Place and Edgemont, built around 2009.
The numbers back this up. In 2021, the average sale price per square foot at The West and Storm Meadows condos was $864, which was 75% of the $1,143 average at One Steamboat Place and Edgemont. We felt that gap was out of alignment, given the age, location, and quality difference between the two groups of properties.
Now look at the same comparison for transactions from 2024 through today. The gap has widened significantly. The average price per square foot at Storm Meadows and The West condos was $1,154, which is 55% of the average at One Steamboat Place and Edgemont, which is now over $2,000. This difference, in our opinion, more accurately represents the age and value proposition of the different properties.
Now, there's a new push and pull in the market: new development at The Stockman Auberge Collection, which is taking quality and luxury to another level, with premium snow-facing and penthouse residences pushing $3,500 per square foot. The direct impact has been felt at One Steamboat Place, which has been the most active property segment of our market in 2026. Buyers are clearly weighing the cost of new construction at the base, combined with a two- to four-year wait, against what One Steamboat Place and the Edgemont offer today. Currently, there's only one condo for sale between both properties: a $10,500,000 residence at Edgemont, priced at $2,690 per square foot.
Considering the old adage of "location, location, location," if I were a buyer today, I'd take a really hard look at the properties offered by Torian Plum, Torian Creekside, and Chateau Chamonix. There are currently six ski-in/ski-out residences for sale in great locations, at 50% of new construction costs.
Along the lines of scarcity, we think this gap offers relatively good value for a buyer in today's market, especially someone looking to enjoy a property today rather than three or four years from now. Another important variable for a buyer is the total price. We get caught up talking about price per square foot, but at the end of the day, there's a very big difference in a buyer's ability to afford a $2 million condo versus a $5 million condo. The properties at Torian and Chateau are all priced below $3 million as of today. If you look at what it will cost to purchase a three-bedroom residence at The Stockman, especially one facing the snow, you're most likely looking at $6 to $8 million. We see value not only in the relative price per square foot, but in the gross price too.
As we step away from ski-in/ski-out properties, which ultimately drive values in our marketplace, we are seeing exciting things in the single-family home market. Back to the theme of scarcity: our single-family market saw a significant amount of new construction and speculative development between 2003 and 2009, which created an oversupply of properties that took years to work through, from 2010 to 2019. During that same window, we didn't see much new single-family development.
When the pandemic hit and the post-pandemic flurry of activity followed, our inventory of homes was mostly 15-plus years old and right in line with the scarcity theme. These homes weren't aligned with buyer interest. As a result, neighborhoods like Alpine Mountain Ranch, Catamount Ranch & Club, Sidney Peak Ranch, Marabou Ranch, and everywhere in between saw strong land sales, spurring a flurry of new construction. There was a time when many of our custom home builders had three-year waits just to get on their list. During this period, we also didn't see much speculative building, as most homes built were custom, owner-built residences. There was no big oversupply of for-sale homes from sellers driven by financial urgency, which led to a more stable single-family home market.
Some numbers to consider: in 2018 and 2019, we saw a total of 162 land transactions in the city of Steamboat Springs, versus 256 in 2021 and 2022, a 55% increase between the two periods. Most of these purchases were by people motivated to build a personal residence. The exciting part for today is that these homes have now been built with modern technology and in line with current design trends.
Why do we find this exciting for the future of Steamboat's real estate market? As we mentioned at the start of this report, Steamboat is on the radar for a far broader audience than in the past. That means real opportunity: new buyers arriving in the marketplace, paired with a newer, more refined offering of properties for them to choose from. It's a positive for both buyers and sellers, and we're already seeing it play out in the properties on the market right now.
There are four relatively new homes for sale in the downtown market, a first for this corridor. Step into the luxury category, and we see more sophisticated homes that let buyers move straight into the mountain retreat they've been aspiring to own, without a two- to three-year wait for design and construction. Here are homes built or significantly remodeled in the past 10 years for sale today.
From the seller's perspective, the sellers we're working with are moving for life decisions rather than financial stress, which creates a stable market. The positive for buyers: the Steamboat resale market remains well below replacement cost.
In our opinion, this is a very rare window of time. The positive drivers of the Steamboat market have never been stronger, the macro backdrop is positive, the community's appeal has never been better, and the options for buyers are the best they've been in three years. We've said it in the past and continue to preach the theme: "It only takes a few transactions to swing the Steamboat market back into a situation of scarcity."