Could you create a community expressly designed around homebuyers willing to spend $4-million-plus to be in Steamboat Springs? A few years back that would have sounded like a stretch–but itap happening now, despite the virus crisis…and maybe because of it.
“Buyers are moving up their timelines for resort homes and relocation, now that they’re predominantly working from home,” said Suzanne Schlicht, Senior Vice President and Director of Sales for Alpine Mountain Ranch in Steamboat, listing agent on two homes put under contract in the past couple weeks in the $4-to-$5 million range.
“The pandemic and the social unrest in metropolitan areas are motivating people to reprioritize whatap important in life, and to shift focus to making their ideas about tomorrow become reality now.”
“That price range is just not as much of an anomaly as before,” says veteran Steamboat Springs Realtor Chris Paoli, who was the listing agent for a mountain contemporary home that sold at Alpine Mountain Ranch last fall for $4.5 million.
Buyers arrive not only from Denver, says Paoli, but also national markets where Steamboat is getting a reputation–in the company of places like Aspen and Jackson Hole.
“The door’s been opened for location-neutral work,” Paoli adds. “People are no longer waiting to do it, they’re just doing it.”
Alpine Mountain Ranch lures that buyer to a setting bordering the ski resort, where 1,216 acres are matched to only 63 homesites—the rest set aside as scenic open space, along with a 3-acre trout lake, a lavishly equipped barn for horseback rides, and access to fly fishing on the Yampa.
Those amenities are now being enhanced with new guest cabins and a clubhouse pool on the way–adding allure to Steamboatap own attractions as a year-round destination.
“Itap an easy choice for buyers,” Paoli says. “Itap a real town, with low property tax, low crime, a hospital–a safe place to be.”
“Big cities just aren’t as much fun now,” adds Steamboat architect Ian Wagner, who designed a Danish-inspired ‘Hygge House’ for Alpine Mountain Ranch–one of those two that recently went under contract. “People are putting up with the aggravation of city living, without the benefits. They’d rather be here.”
In the $4 million range, the market has exploded, he adds. Clients are from the Front Range, Texas, and L.A.–all liking the design-build emphasis at Alpine Mountain Ranch.
That was a key element luring the California buyers who signed on for the Hygge House (the Danish word blends ‘comfort’ and ‘wellbeing)—suggesting simplicity and elegance while avoiding distracting the eye from the incredible views here.
Alpine Mountain Ranch is launching more custom-market homes like that, or you can choose a site from $1.4 million and work with an architect on your own expression of the views and amenities.
“With the remaining inventory of custom homes going under contract within 30 days, and unprecedented velocity at which homesites are selling, I see no signs of slowdown in the Steamboat Springs luxury market as we move into fall,” adds Alpine Mountain Ranch’s Schlicht.
The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this postap preparation.