Real Estate Market Analysis: Garfield County
Garfield County boasts Glenwood Springs, a quaint and historic town that also offers one of the largest pools filled with natural hot springs. It also includes towns like Rifle, current popular for oil drilling.
January through August of 2008 showed an increase in the average price of homes, from $413,125 during the same time period in 2007, to $467,403 in 2008. Like all other counties, the number of transactions slowed, from 2001 for the first eight months of 2007, to 1,210 in 2008.
In the first eight months of 2008, the average price of a single-family home in rural areas of Garfield County increased by 205%, to $1.9 million. Oddly, land suffered, decreasing by 69% to $97,000.
Even Glenwood Springs took a bit of a hit on single-family home prices, decreasing by 2% to $510,882.
New Castle rose 9%, to $407,358, and Rifle rose 2%, to $321,386. In New Castle, multi-family complexes did well, with a 19% increase, to $261,617. Vacant land did the best in Silt, where it increased 63%, to $261,764. Vacant land in Rifle decreased in value by 21%, hitting $163,983. However, the town had the most transactions: 260, followed by Glenwood Springs’ 217 and New Castle’s 195.
Note: Part of Carbondale is in Garfield County, and part is in Pitkin County. The part of Carbondale in Garfield County saw its average price increase by 10% for a single-family home (to $906,295). Multifamily properties fared almost as well, at a 9% increase, bringing them to $489,755. Land also rose 21%, to $330,041.
Summit County realty
