Summit County Market Update & Local Biz Spotlights

In this episode, we break down what’s really happening in Summit County real estate—inventory, days on market, price trends, and how buyer/seller behavior is shifting as we head through 2025. We also spotlight a few local small businesses that keep our mountain towns vibrant.

🎧 You’ll hear:

• Key metrics: new listings, median price, and buyer demand
• Strategy tips for buyers and sellers 
• Seasonal trends in the market in Summit County, CO
• Local business shout-outs you shouldn’t miss

🛍️ Small Business Spotlights
 • 10 Mile Music Hall (Frisco) — Beloved live-music venue & event space keeping the local scene buzzing.
• Radicato (Breckenridge) — Italian-inspired spot known for handmade-feel plates and cozy mountain vibes.
• Meta Yoga (Frisco & Breckenridge) — Community-focused studios offering classes and workshops for all levels.

📞 Connect
 Amy Nakos Group — Summit County, CO
 Candice De • 303-870-9300; candice@amynakos.com
 amynakos.com

Transcript

Welcome to Mountain Real Estate, where we bring you the latest insights on real estate from Denver to Summit County, Colorado. I'm your host, Candice De, a realtor, investor, engineer, mom, and Colorado native. 

I'm Candice De with the Amy Nakos Group here at your Castle Summit. And today it's just me. So for better or worse, you get me. I'm gonna give a market update for August of 2025. We just got our August data. And then I have a little treat highlighting some small businesses in the county. I'm gonna share my screen and we will get started. 

So for this month, we are now in September, so we're gonna look back at the August trends. And there's been a lot of conflicting information and conflicting sentiments about where things are going, are we totally in a buyer's market, are prices falling, is this the next 2008? I wanted to share a couple things that I've learned in some of the data. 

So we’re gonna start with active listings. And I went back to 2017, just so we could see how this compares to pre-COVID levels. And our inventory is high. So we're up 25 % from last year. That's usually the data we report is year over year, but we're also above pandemic levels and above pre-COVID levels. So there's definitely a lot more to choose from right now. 

The next thing we're gonna look at is pending sales. So again, when we report statistics, we look year over year, but I like this trend all the way back to 2017. So when we compare August 2025 to August 2024, we're up 30%. So you can see we're kind of riding that wave up the peak, because in Summit County, we usually peak in September, October. And we're lower in our pending sales than we were in pre-COVID levels, but we are higher than the last three years. We're higher than 24, 23, and 2022. So the good news is things are still moving. There are still buyers interested. There's just a lot more activity. Where that peaks? We'll find out. It'll be interesting to see where our September and October numbers land. So more to come on that. 

And then I overlaid these two graphs with some very mediocre engineering art. So this takes those two graphs. So we have the dark line as active listings, the gray line is pending listings. And the interesting thing about this is that the difference between those is the active inventory. So how much do new buyers in the market have to pick from? And really, it's not that there's a delta, because there's usually a delta unless we're in the middle of COVID. So there's more to pick from than people are putting under contract unless we are in COVID times. But it's really that rate of change that is the difference. So if we look at 2017, 2018 to 2019, 2018 to 2019, that delta got bigger. And then we look at 22, it was right on top of each other, and then 23, it got really big again. And those big changes are where we kind of feel the price hits, we feel the sentiment change. So from 22 to 23, it actually got a little bit closer or about the same. And so our pricing stayed the same. And then 24 got a little bit bigger, our pricing took a little bit of a dip. 25,  maybe  our active listings grew more than our pending listings, but we'll kind of see how the whole year shakes out. So that rate of change is important. If we just stayed with these same humps like it was in 2017 and 2018, I think our pricing would be stable. It's when we see those big jumps where it's really big or really small that we see big price jumps. And that predictability makes it a little bit harder for buyers and sellers to really know what a good market price is. 

So how does that relate to those market prices? So as we've seen when we have more options, so that delta is bigger, it leads to downward pricing pressure. This is supply and demand, when there's more supply to pick from, the demand goes down and the prices go down. Our median sales price, when we compare August 25 to August 24, we're down about 7 % this year. So we are seeing price drops. Some of that we think is maybe the mix of what is selling. So we're still seeing some that are comparable to last year. We're seeing some take really big hits. We have a property that's significantly under the purchase price from 2022. And then we have others that are getting their asking price and getting it quickly. 

One of the things that I think is interesting is this is really about the motivation of the sellers and the buyers right now. We're in a second home market, so it's not like a primary residence market where you have to have a place to live. In this case, we are finding that some sellers need to get rid of their property. They're very motivated, whether it's that they need to cash out or they have something they want to do with the money  or they  just want to  be out of that investment. We're seeing downward pricing pressure on those motivated sellers. We're seeing other sellers that are like, here's my price. I'm leaving it. Come and get my property if you want it, but I'm not gonna lower the price. So we are seeing some harder negotiations on some properties and it's really that divergence, especially in a second home market where both seller motivation and buyer motivation matter.  Same thing, the sellers may not need to sell, but the buyers also may not need to buy right now. These are often wants rather than needs. That is what we say in our market. And so we’re seeing that downward price pressure come from those motivated sellers. And often it's sellers that have gotten in the last five years where they see the smaller gains erode, where they're seeing that price pressure. I have several sellers that I've heard from who've said, “we've owned this a really long time, and there's a lot of maintenance and we're just not there enough and we're spending all our time fixing it up and we just don't want to do that.” And so I've had a couple that are like, well, I'd like to sell now. And then we talk about pricing for a property that is not updated. And they're like, “ooh,  I don't know that I want to do that.” And some are talking about giving it to their kids. Some are talking about holding on to it. And some are like, yep, I'm ready. I'm going to do what it takes to sell it. I'm going to update it. Or I'm going to take that pricing hit. And so that's really the market that we're in. You’ve got to at least know what the demand is and what the market is saying. 

So that's where we're at for our trends for  August of 2025. As I mentioned, we're kind of entering September and October are pretty busy months for contracts. So we're not through our main season like Denver is. We still have a lot of activity to do to see for the rest of the summer. 

So now let's jump into the non-data part and the fun part. I'm gonna highlight three businesses in the county. I did this in the newsletter last time and I just had fun with it. So I decided to do it again. 

One, if you're looking for something fun to do…  Obviously a lot of people go to Red Rocks. Dillon Amphitheater is getting a really big name.  But there's this local indoor place. 10 Mile Music Hall is actually getting really big names and it's a quaint little venue that has awesome acoustics, great staff (thanks Todd) and it's just a really fun time on Frisco Main Street. So check out the calendar of events at 10 Mile Music Hall if you're looking for some good music in the county. 

Then if you're looking for something to eat,  I got a gift card to Raticato and it has kind of blown my mind. I also listened to the owner on TEDx Breckenridge who kind of talked about his journey and how he got here. So feel free to check that out. But the food is amazing. The ambiance is great. The wine is good. It's just like an all around positive environment in Breckenridge, but make a reservation because they're very busy. 

And then last.  If you're looking for a way to move your body, maybe it's winter or mud season.  I really like hot yoga and I've been going to Metta, which was previously under a different name, but it's in Frisco and in Breckenridge. They have two studios. They do some outdoor classes in the summer.  They have heated classes in the winter and it's a great community, a great place to see a lot of familiar faces and just move your body and get that detox, that sweating and hot yoga does for you. So those are our three  small business shout outs.  

Thanks for joining us today on Mountain Real Estate.  I'm Candice De. If the mountains are calling you, reach out to me.  See you next time.