After an unforgettable 2020, the first month of the New Year saw a decline in both real estate sales and dollar volume. Transactions were down 43% from December and marked the first time monthly sales dipped below 40 since June 2020, which was a slow month due to the COVID shut down in March and April. While January (and winter) is typically a slower month of the year, there were 4 fewer sales this past month than in January 2020. Total dollar volume was down nearly 50% from December, with just under $100,000,000 in January sales. Again, the first time we’ve seen dollar volume below $100 million since June 2020. Compared to last January 2020, sales volume was up slightly ($5 million), despite seeing 4 fewer sales. The decline in sales and volume is not an indication of a slowing market – quite the contrary, with demand for Jackson Hole properties far outweighing the available inventory levels (see below). The average sales price dipped in January, but was above $2.5 million for the 9th month in a row. The median sales price held steady at $1.65 million, nearly $400,000 higher than in January 2020. Demand for Jackson Hole properties remains very strong, with January sales closing, on average, at 97% of list price. Ten sales were at or above the listing prices in January, as more buyers seem to be circling than there are available listings. Single family homes accounted for just over half of all sales in January, a trend we’ve seen carry through from the second half of 2020. After 5 months of higher than usual land sales, that saw an average of 18 sales a month, vacant lot transactions dropped off in January, with only 5 sales. While nearly 3 out of every 4 sales in January occurred over $1 million, sales over $3 million declined with only 8 sales in January (after an average of 25 per month since July 2020).

2020 continues to be quite a year! While we finally saw a slow down of real estate sales from the record setting past 3 months, November’s 76 transactions still exceeded all months prior to August 2020 this year. The total dollar volume in November also slowed, down roughly $39M from October, but still totaling $248M, more than any month prior to August 2020. While transactions and volume declined slightly from the unprecedented 3 recent months, the average and median sales prices actually increased. The average sale price was $3.2M in November (up from $2.9M in October), while the median sales price increased from $1.5M in October to $2.3M in November, illustrating significant activity in Jackson’s high end market.

In November, 31 sales occurred over $3 million (representing 41% of all sales). In fact, more than 75% of the sales were for properties over $1M. Since May of 2020, the under $500,000 price point has accounted for a 5% or less of the monthly transactions, with November recording just 4 sales under $500,000. Single family home sales have been a dominant property type, accounting for about 50% or more of each month’s sales since April and representing 41 transactions, or 54% of this months transactions. Land sales have also been consistently up since August, with 19 lot sales recorded in November. This increase in building site sales is most likely a result of dwindling inventory of single family homes, as we have moved more single family inventory in 2020 than we have in the history of the report (and we still have one month left to close out the year!).