It’s not just city dwellers who are feeling the urge to downsize and simplify their living situations.
Real estate agents in the Vail Valley say their clients are increasingly interested in smaller homes as the battered economy forces them to retrench or environmental concerns cause them to think twice about heating and cooling their sprawling mountain homes.
While the size and prices of these downsized homes might still be eye-popping, Realtors say the trend is evident.
“We’re seeing a big shift from buyers who have large homes in Cordillera and Bachelor Gulch looking for something more convenient and a little smaller,” said John Tyler, a Realtor with Slifer Smith & Frampton in Beaver Creek.
Jim Trudeau and his family sold their $1.7 million house in the Singletree neighborhood in Edwards this summer and bought one nearby for $750,000, using some of their profits to pick out fancy bathroom and kitchen finishes.
Trudeau said an expensive medical problem made the family realize that they should focus more on each other and not worry too much about maintaining a big, beautiful home.
“We were ahead of the curve, and we got a reasonable deal,” he said. “But it’s becoming more and more of a reality for people in this economy.”
Rick Pirog, also of Slifer Smith & Frampton in Beaver Creek, said he knows a couple that put their 6,000-square-foot home in Cordillera on the market for $3.1 million and picked out a four-bedroom, 3,800-square- foot home in nearby Kensington Green for $1.45 million.
Once the Cordillera home sells, the couple plans to use the additional revenues to buy a second home in Phoenix.
“They don’t ski as much as they used to because they’re 65 years old. But they love being here in the summer,” Pirog said. “In the winter, they can head to Phoenix.”
Nationally, about 8 percent to 14 percent of homebuyers now say they’re looking to move into something smaller, a trend that appears to be related to the slowing economy.
Folks who move to downsize in the mountains are driven by several market factors, area Realtors said. Some are baby boomers who find they don’t want to deal with the maintenance of the $3 million to $5 million mansions they coveted when they moved to the Vail Valley.
Homeowners’ environmental concerns also seem to be influencing their choices, said David Hyde, an employee at George Shaeffer Construction, which builds luxury homes and other projects in Eagle County. Homeowners want to be more “green,” and they’re realizing that 10,000-square-foot homes that cost thousands of dollars to heat in the wintertime leave a big carbon footprint, he said.
“Customers are realizing that bigger is not necessarily better,” Hyde said. “They’re definitely more environmentally conscious.”
Others, of course, are driven by the economy and are simply acting more conservatively, said Realtor Tracy Bossow. One of Bossow’s clients started looking for a home at a much higher price in January and is now looking for a bargain, possibly under $500,000.
The average home price in Eagle County in the past year was about $1.2 million, according to statistics from Land Title Guarantee Co.
“What we’re seeing is a lot of people who may have spent more in the past now looking for things under the $500,000 price range,” Bossow said.
“It’s a good buyer’s market, and they want to get into the market (at) a little bit more affordable price point.”
