{"id":44070,"date":"2021-10-27T02:24:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T08:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/least-populated-county-in-colorado-isnt-spared-from-rising-home-prices\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:17:11","slug":"least-populated-county-in-colorado-isnt-spared-from-rising-home-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/least-populated-county-in-colorado-isnt-spared-from-rising-home-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Least populated county in Colorado isn\u2019t spared from rising home prices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Jim
Jim Lindaman, a real estate agent in Silverton, said prospective homebuyers in Silverton are looking for anything affordable, which is tough to come by these days. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

SILVERTON \u2013 The least populated county in Colorado has not been spared from the soaring home prices that have made it difficult for working-class residents to live in the towns where they work.<\/p>\n

Silverton, which is the county seat to San Juan County, suffers from low housing inventory and rapidly rising home prices \u2013 similar to other towns and cities across Colorado.<\/p>\n

As of mid-October, only four residential homes were on the market. That may be acceptable in a town of only 600 full-time residents, but as more people turn to remote working or flee urban settings for mountain living, demand is picking up.<\/p>\n

During the past 10 years, the median price of a home in Silverton has gone from $163,000 in 2011 to $217,000 in 2015 to $305,000 in 2020. This year, the cost jumped another $100,000, with a median price now at $405,000, according to real estate agents in this historic mining town nestled in the San Juan Mountains at 9,300 feet in elevation.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the median household income was $50,524 in 2019 in San Juan County, according to Stats America.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive years ago, we were probably at $150 per square foot,\u201d said Jim Lindaman, a real estate agent. \u201cThen we went nuts this last nine months; I mean, we\u2019re over $300 per square foot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Real estate agent Karen Srebacic said one thing is for certain: If a property has any potential, it is bound to sell fast.<\/p>\n

She attributes high demand to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to an \u201curban exodus\u201d of sorts on the part of some Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt (the pandemic) definitely motivated some of our local population to buy,\u201d Srebacic said.<\/p>\n

About 70% of homebuyers this year have been locals or people looking to buy their first or primary home in Silverton, Srebacic said. The rest of Srebacic\u2019s residential sales were to people looking to invest in properties or purchase their second homes.<\/p>\n

\"Karen
Karen Srebacic, a real estate agent in Silverton, talks about a business and residential unit above it that are both for sale in Silverton on Greene Street. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI feel like people kind of were waiting for something else to pop up for sale,\u201d she said. \u201cYou wait too long and now we\u2019re in this spike, so people just decided it was time to buy what you could buy and get your stake.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what prospective buyers are looking for in the Silverton housing market, Lindaman laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething they can afford,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody wants their fixer-upper that\u2019s cheap. Well, there aren\u2019t any, except that 40-year-old trailer \u2013 and you can\u2019t fix that up. There isn\u2019t a normal \u2018What people are looking for,\u2019 except cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindaman said he speaks to \u201ctons\u201d of buyers, but they either can\u2019t afford what is available or they don\u2019t want what is available.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the cheapest house is $500,000 to $600,000, they can\u2019t afford that,\u201d he said. \u201cTeachers can\u2019t afford that, even if both of them are teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the most affordable properties in Silverton are also the least accessible, he said. There\u2019s a 10-acre parcel at Silver Lake for just $12,000 \u2013 but it\u2019s also 12,000 feet in elevation. Lindaman said it is hike-in, hike-out territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got 10 acres on Stony Pass Road, $39,000,\u201d Lindaman said. \u201cSeasonal, four-wheel (drive) only. And between there and there, there are several avalanche chutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindaman recalled one prospective buyer contemplating the Stony Pass property, saying, \u201cWell, I can take a snowmobile.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cYeah, you can get killed, but you can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Srebacic noted there is limited space for Silverton to grow, which is driving up home prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t really have expansion (in Silverton) because you run into the side of the mountain,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just gets really steep really quick and you end up in avalanche terrain. \u2026 There can be rockslides, mudslides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plus, Srebacic said bringing new infrastructure into uncarved mountainous areas can cost millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

\"Karen
Karen Srebacic, a real estate agent in Silverton, talks about the real estate situation in Silverton. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Low housing stock and skyrocketing housing costs hurt the number of home sales. As of mid-October, 19 homes had sold year to date. Twenty-nine homes sold from Oct. 19, 2019, to Oct. 19, 2020; 17 homes sold in 2016 and five homes sold in 2011, according to Srebacic\u2019s data.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is there\u2019s less selling because the prices have gone whacko,\u201d Lindaman said.<\/p>\n

The cheapest price in town as of Oct. 19 was a 40-year-old mobile home selling for $410,000. New condos that will be completed next year are going for $500,000 apiece. Lindaman said a house on Empire Street and Blair Street has gradually dropped in price, from $555,000 to $469,000 \u2013 something he attributes, in part, to the recent ban of OHVs.<\/p>\n

Srebacic said commercial real estate sales are slower because they are more expensive and consist of larger projects. Her data demonstrates four commercial sales this year as of Oct. 19 and one last year.<\/p>\n

\"A
A house under construction in Silverton. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A house for sale in Silverton is one of only a few that are on the market. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Median commercial real estate costs in Silverton sit at $733,750, according to Srebacic\u2019s data. She was unable to pull data for previous years, she said, although she said there was one commercial sale last year for $1.2 million.<\/p>\n

The need for housing is so high in Silverton that the town is allowing residential developments in its economic development zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need housing so much that instead of it being work-live, where you can do light industrial and louder things with business, they\u2019ve allowed residential,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Srebacic said most people building living quarters make sure to include a garage and long-term rental space attached.<\/p>\n

Srebacic said it is Silverton\u2019s quality of life that is helping attract prospective homebuyers. The air is clean, traffic is virtually non-existent and most people in the area have outdoorsy lifestyles.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Housing supply is low and median cost doubles in five years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,614,327],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-real-estate","tag-silverton"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85959,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44070\/revisions\/85959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44070"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}