High Price For Paradise
Whether you are a long time local or a once a year skier from St. Louis, almost everyone gets a little sticker shock from the real estate prices in Breckenridge and Summit County. Demand for the area is generally high, so the products and service providers can charge a little more. A dichotomy of living in a beautiful community like Summit County is that locals are not the only people that want to live here. The challenge for Summit County locals, or locals of any resort community, is that second homeowners enjoy the same benefits of the area as the locals. Much to a local buyer’s dismay, the high demand of people wanting second homes drives up prices for real estate for everyone. In our current times, even with the nation in financial turmoil, people still want to be in Summit and there are willing to pay heavily for it. At the most basic level, this shows us a very good thing… people like Summit County. Without this demand and drive, our community would not be the busy tourist-based community that it is.
One idea many Summit County buyers don’t often think about is the benefit of a high priced community. Many of the amenities enjoyed by locals, second homeowners and tourists alike are brought about by tax revenues from real estate transactions in Summit County. The higher the price of real estate, the greater the tax revenue to the towns and county are. Dozens of forest trail systems, 40+ miles of paved bike paths, the Breckenridge Riverwalk Center, the Silverthorne Pavilion, as well as maintenance and beatification for parks and public areas are just a few examples of expensive projects paid for by tax dollars. Taxes are an unfortunate truth for us all, but one thing is for sure, in the last 20 years, tax money has clearly been used to make Breckenridge and Summit County more enjoyable for everyone.
May 21st, 2009 at 2:45 pm
I usually expect the Breckenridge real estate prices to be relatively higher than market average across colorado since is it in a more luxurious location.