2011 saw an increase in land sales in La Plata County over 2010. There were 134 vacant land sales last year compared to 98 in 2010. That represents an increase of approximately 36.7 %. The average sales price was $230,449 (up from $203,328) while the median sales price was $127,500. (up from $115,950). There were three land sales of $1 million or more last year compared to only one in 2010. One of those 2011 land sales was the commercial piece of land around the Durango Mall that was purchased for the use of Mercury Payment Systems. That 58 acres sold for $3.3 million. There was a 35 acre tract in Windom, just south of Needles Country Store about 1/2 mile, it sold for $1.55 million. The last million-dollar tract was the balance of the Mesa Meadows subdivision located in Bayfield which included 48 lots and sold for $1.2 million. Total dollar volume for land sales in 2011 was $30.88 million compared to $19.9 million in 2010. The listed price of those sales was $35.7 million so the final sales to list price percentage was 86.4%. This shows that there is quite a little bit of negotiating between buyer and seller when it comes to vacant land sales. The average days on the market for those 134 sales was 336 days (down from 352 days the year before) while the median days on the market was 166 days which represented a significant decline from 246 days in 2010. The largest parcel sold was for 800 acres on County Road 106. It was a very private hunting piece of land it sold for $750,000.
Apparently land was difficult to finance because 85 of the transactions were paid for in all cash and 8 of the sales involved owner financing. That’s a slight improvement over 2010 when there were 60 cash sales and nine owner financing transactions out of a total of 98 sales. Durango rural had the largest dollar volume of sales with 69 transactions totaling $15.2 million. Durango in town was second with 22 sales totaling just over $8 million; remember that 3.3 million of that was for the land sale around Durango Mall. Our Board of Realtors we recognize any sale from Rockwood and north of that to be classified as “Durango Mountain Area”. Consequently, this would include Rockwood, Tamara, glacier:, Windom, Lake Purgatory, and of course any land sales at the ski area itself. That category had 17 sales totaling $4.1 million. Areas that were not very strong in land sales last year included: Vallecito Lake (eight sales totaling just under $700,000); rural Ignacio (two sales totaling $190,000); Bayfield rural (11 sales totaling just over $1 million).
I thought I would try a little bit different analysis this year and look at various track sizes and see how those were selling. In 2010 there were a total of 16 vacant land sales and the County between 3 and 10 acres in size. This particular land size in the past has been quite common and particularly popular with developers. In 2010 the average sales price for that type of property was $158,816 while the median sales price was $142,000. The highest price for your parcel that size was $395,000 in that year. In looking at 2011 statistics, we see that the number of units sold increased to 21 and the average sales price increased only slightly to $159,890 while the median price dropped to $120,000. The highest sales price of a tract in that size in 2011 was $750,000.
Tracts of land 35 to 40 acres in size represents another category that we often look at. In 2011 there were 22 to such sales in the County with an average sales price of $344,772 and a median sales price of $207,500. The single highest priced tract of that size was $1.5 million tract located it Windom that I talked about earlier. These figures shown improvement over 2010 when there were only 16 sales and the average sales price was $250,596 but the median sales price was $247,500. The single largest sale for tracts of that size in 2010 was $605,000.
Some of you will remember back in 2005 when we were doing 300 land sales per year. The current figures certainly don’t show that type of volume, but they are showing a slow but steady increase for the last several years. Land prices have definitely declined over the last five years so there are some very good opportunities out there for people either wanting to just invest or that are giving serious thought to building. We’ve all often been told the three most important things about real estate are location location and location. And those words are so true. Perhaps that ideal parcel of land that you have been looking for, is out there and available now. With prices down, this may be an especially good time to buy.
