Summit County
Build-Out Trends in Summit County
By RealEstateColorado.com

As Summit County, Colorado and Breckenridge real estate moves closer to the inevitable build-out, can we come up with creative options?  Build-out is achieved when all of the land zoned for building in an area has been developed.  It may seem like there’s plenty of open land around the county.  But real estate developers in Summit County cannot touch 85% of the total 396,245 acres in the county.  These belong to the State of Colorado and the United States of America—the people!

Summit County real estate is approximately 69 percent built for residential development zoning and 61 percent built for commercial.  Planners have concluded that development will consume approximately 25% more land by 2011 and eventually reach build out by 2013. 

Property in Frisco may already be built-out, with only two pieces of land available at one point last year.  We already see rebuilding like we’ve seen in other communities.  Older homes get torn down and replaced with pricey new homes.  This happens when the land’s value is higher than the building on it.

When a ski community reaches build-out, prices can become astronomical like they have in Aspen and Vail (Pitkin and Eagle counties).  Look at comparative single-family home average prices and draw your own conclusions:  Pitkin County: $3,293,104; Eagle County $1,061,265; Summit County $724,091; and towns in Park County $253,329.  [The numbers go up by the minute!]

These kinds of prices send people looking in neighboring counties for something affordable.  Let’s take a peek at adjacent Park County with its wonderful historic towns, rolling hills, tremendous views and lower prices.  “You can still buy a nice house for $300,000 just 15 miles from Breck, but it’s hard to buy a lot for $300,000 in Breck,” Rick Allemang, broker/owner of RealEstateColorado.com said in the Summit Daily News.  Allemang owns a 1.1-acre lot next to his Placer Valley home north of Alma in Park County that was valued at $50,000 a year ago and is now worth closer to $80,000.

Developers have headed into Park County, driving up the price of land there also.  The historic western outpost of Fairplay has opened its vistas to Frontier Development Company of Denver.  Frontier will add 300 homes to the 385 existing homes in town, just 23 miles from Breckenridge.  Many people will buy a second home there and others, including ski-resort employees, will find more affordable housing here.  Of course, commercially, the service industry is looking to capture the market, adding the county’s first grocery store, recreation center, truck stop and a bowling alley. 

A Best Western is on the horizon, the brainchild of the owner of the American Safari Ranch in Fairplay who reports, “There are a lot of requests for groups to come to the area, but they don’t come because they don’t have decent accommodations.” 

So, let them come and let them share in the wonder and beauty of life in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.