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Written by Jennifer Kocher, Cowboy State Daily
Real estate prices in Teton County have doubled in the past 18 months, and properties selling for less than $1 million are becoming increasingly rare in the county’s limited housing stock, according to a report from a Jackson real estate company.
Prugh Real Estate, in a report on real estate conditions in the first quarter of the year, said that of the county’s 39 active listings, only two were priced under $1 million. The following 13 least expensive properties are on the market for between $1 million and $3 million.
The residential property with the highest selling price currently on the market is over $19 million.
In 20 years of selling, Greg Prue, a broker and owner of Prugh Real Estate, said this was the lowest stock he had seen at such high prices.
Brough said that where last year a three-bedroom apartment in Jackson sold for $775,000, today the same property just sold for $1.5 million. The value of his downtown Jackson home has more than quadrupled in the eight years since it was built.
The housing shortage is not a new situation, Brug said, but the current shortage is exacerbating a growing supply and demand problem identified by the New Teton Housing Needs Assessment.
The assessment, which looked at the housing needs of Teton County and the surrounding communities of Teton County, Idaho and northern Lincoln County, identified an estimated need for approximately 5,300 new affordable housing units to meet projected demand through 2027.
Although there are a few new housing developments, the community is not even close to meeting this demand.
“We’ve always had the housing problem, but it’s more acute today,” said Brug.
Influx of buyers from outside the country
Brough said the massive increase in home sales occurred in March 2020 when panic buyers — mostly from other states such as California, New York, Texas and Florida — began buying real estate, buying it at a much faster pace than seen before.
According to input from local real estate brokers included in the March housing assessment, many of these properties were purchased as second homes or “safe havens” to beat the pandemic because work-from-home policies made it possible to live and work anywhere.
According to the report, the influx of buyers from outside the country has outpaced domestic buyers.
Along the same lines, local residents took advantage of market dynamics and sold their local properties to buy homes on the Idaho side of Teton Pass, many paying for these homes in cash.
However, the rise in home prices in Teton County predates the pandemic and can be traced back to 2015.
On average, home prices have risen 16% annually since 2015 for single-family homes and 9% annually for condominiums and apartment buildings.
A more significant jump has been seen in recent years.
Between 2019 and 2020, the price of a single-family home jumped 44% – 27% for condominiums and condominiums, the report said.
In the first 10 months of 2021, the median sale price for a condo or cottage was $422,000 while the median price for a single-family home was about $750,000.
The prices, combined with the limited supply, have made buying a home for less than $1 million nearly impossible for many locals in Teton County and surrounding areas.
dynamic change
Brough said he is conflicted about the current market. While he and his company benefited from 30 deals in the first quarter, he said it was a bittersweet situation.
“We’re happy, but we don’t know what the second quarter looks like,” he said. “It’s like eating all the Halloween candy in one place. It tastes sweet and good but you’ll have a stomachache right away.”
Part of his discomfort is knowing that every sale drives someone else out of the valley where he was born and raised.
“I worry about the service providers, the guy who changed your tire, the nurse with the family whose rent just went up from $3,000 to $5,000 a month,” Brough said. “We have to protect our local people.”
The current housing shortage points to an even bigger problem in the future – what happens to Jackson when all the locals are expelled and the city no longer has local restaurants, cafes and businesses because service workers can’t live in Jackson. It’s not good for locals or tourists, Brug said.
“You have to worry about Jackson becoming a cruise ship in the future,” he said. People come to Jackson because they want to meet the locals. They do not go to meet other tourists. They come to experience Jackson and the community. We need the working and entertaining class.”
