Second quarter in the Sun Valley real estate market predictably showed the signs of life as we entered the summer selling season. A surge of inventory found its way onto the market to pump up the numbers to give us the appearance that we are doing well. In some sectors numbers are slightly up against 2018’s second quarter, however, this largely has to do with the recent inventory surge, for the most part, down from a year ago. That’s nothing to sweat as the past two years have had tremendous movement and with only a limited amount of new construction coming to the market it’s hard to top what we’ve recently experienced. Lack of inventory has raised prices in some sectors however lack of movement has forced some to come down enough to meet the demands of market. Highlights in the market include movement in Elkhorn condos, single family homes in Sun Valley, and vacant land in Hailey with a couple other notables to be brought up later.
Condos have been and continue to be a pretty steady market. Warm Springs who took a little bit of a dip last year is fighting its way back with inventory and value. Elkhorn with limited inventory is still doing slightly better than it did a year ago. This is a steady turn over sector of our market where price points are able to affirm themselves especially with consistent demand.
Single family homes in Sun Valley is literally the only sector of our market that has had growth across the board. Inventory is up, price points, etc. There is a lot of new construction in that area as well as a new inventory of vacant land in White Clouds being sold by Sun Valley Company through the KW office. Bellevue as well is having great growth as prices have gone up as well as sales. Hailey took a little bit of a breather prior to the second quarter and now the door is opening up. Some beautiful new homes and remodels in great locations have been moving down there. Ketchum and Warm Springs have a little sneaky spot to note in the numbers. If you look at the numbers below you’ll notice that inventory and contracts are up. So, it appears that people are ready to move out and move in the early part of this summer. This is contributing to the second quarter growth from new inventory previously mentioned and speaks to the number of buyers who’ve been praying on the market.
Vacant land has been a relatively boring topic of discussion the past year until now. Hailey is going off, well relatively. Average price point dropped 5%, likely to do with a large amount of inventory, and now its total volume is up 2 million over a year ago. Are people starting to value land again? Is this a counter to the lack of inventory that occurred in the single-family sector? Are people anticipating a drop in building prices in the near future? If we stick to the idea that Sun Valley is six to eighteen months behind national trends we could argue that this is the case. Inventory is out there in Hailey with plenty to go around. This part of the market in Hailey is the most notable positive change in the second quarter.
