Garfield County is #1!

In my position I see on a daily basis how difficult and expensive things have gotten for homebuyers in our area. Last week NBC came up with a new tool to quantify how difficult it is to purchase a property. It accounts for home prices, interest rates and other metrics such as competitiveness, insurances rates etc… Our very own Garfield county comes out as the big winner as the most difficult county to buy a property in the nation! A win that comes with a bitter taste for local families hoping to access property in our area.

Here is a link to the full article - sorry in advance for the horrendous display of ads on the NBC website!

https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/home-buyer-difficulty-index-findings-rcna152273

The top 3 counties where it’s the hardest to access property are all in Colorado. Garfield County is first, followed by Routt County (Steamboat Springs) and Mesa County (Grand Junction). Not only is Garfield first on the list, but it’s also surrounded to the north and the west by the counties that come 2nd and 3d, confirming that our situation is not an anomaly but a geographical, demographic reality that’s here to stay.

Mesa County 3d?

It first came as a surprise to me to find Mesa County ( Grand Junction and its surroundings) in the top 3. Mesa county seems so much more affordable that Pitkin county for example. But that’s when the NBC poll seems to reflect best the struggle that people experience when buying a house. Pitkin county is expensive but I wouldn’t call it a “struggle” to buy a property there, considering that the buyers in that market are wealthy and usually buy a property there for leisure and as an investment in an asset they would like to own. Not exactly a struggle to put a roof over their head. Both Garfield and Mesa county receive the pour over of working families priced out of ultra wealthy counties such as Pitkin County. They move further downvalley with good pays and the pressure on towns like Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, New Castle, Rifle and so on all the way to Grand Junction is very real.

What’s next?

There tool doesn’t only encompass the affordability issue, but also the overall competitiveness of the market. In this way it seems like a forward looking tool that tells us that things are going to get worse before they get better.

Buckle up, the Summer of 2024 will be a competitive one on the real estate market in the Roaring Fork valley!