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While Eagle County’s real estate market has slowed from the land-rush days of 2021 and 2022, the market is still headed toward its third consecutive year of more than $3 billion in sales.

This year’s sales and dollar volume through the end of September are on a similar track to numbers posted in 2023, which marked a slowdown from the fast-paced markets of 2021 and 2022.

Matt Fitzgerald, the Eagle County employing broker for Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate, said demand has remained “healthy,” particularly in the luxury market. That’s due to the strength of the country’s stock market.

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On the other hand, Fitzgerald noted that inventory has never picked back up in the wake of the high demand of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The current inventory in the county’s Multiple Listing Service is in the high 300s to low 400s, Fitzgerald said. That represents just more than four months of inventory, he added. Conventional wisdom holds that six months of inventory is “balanced” between a buyer’s and seller’s market.

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While the market leans somewhat toward sellers, that doesn’t mean those sellers can always get what they demand.

Stephanie Hart, a broker with LIV Sotheby’s International Realty, noted that the current time on the market for homes is 68 days.

Hart said sellers who need to move their homes quickly may need to look at their asking prices.

On the other hand, units in high demand will still move quickly.

Hart this summer listed a unit in Bachelor Gulch that was the only one of its kind on the market at the time. It sold quickly, with multiple offers, for more than the asking price.

In Gypsum, Scooter Slaughter with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Colorado Properties, said while inventory is at a premium in that area, he’s having his busiest year.

Slaughter noted that while prices saw a “big jump” between 2020 and 2023, those prices seem to have leveled off in the past year or so. Still, he added, those prices show no signs of coming down.

And, while the Federal Reserve on Thursday lowered its benchmark interest rate by 0.25%, interest rates remain significantly higher than they were during the pandemic.

Slaughter noted that a first-time buyer with good credit can expect to pay somewhere between 6% and 6.5% for an FHA mortgage with a low down payment. On the other hand, many people who bought during the pandemic are paying roughly half that rate.

“That’s why a lot of people aren’t moving right now,” Slaughter said. “They don’t want to trade that.”

Slaughter said he’s hopeful for more business in the spring of 2025, adding he believes some potential sellers are going to wait. But, he added, it’s hard to tell what inventory is going to look like even a few months from now.

“Building costs are just too high,” he said.