The median cost of homes in La Plata County and in-town Durango were clocking in at over 10% more expensive in the first quarter of 2026 than the same quarter in 2025, according to data from the Durango Area Association of Realtors.
Durango in-town homes were selling for a median price of $940,000 in the first quarter of 2026 – a 15.7% increase from the same quarter in 2025.
The median price for La Plata County homes overall saw an 11.5% cost increase between those same quarters.
John Wells, owner of Durango real estate company The Wells Group, said costs for Durango and La Plata County homes are steadily rising for a few reasons, including a solid rise in demand and a constrained supply.
Inventory has been low for years, he said, and adding new, affordable housing is a challenge because La Plata County has limited buildable land given its proximity to tribal land and mountainous terrain. Meanwhile, development costs for infrastructure like water, sewer and roads have gone up.
Those who are buying tend to purchase higher-priced homes, Wells said, which pushes average and median prices up over time.
“Housing and affordability – the cost of living – is really central to everything that we’re trying to do in Durango for (a) thriving community,” City Housing Policy and Planning Administrator Brian Devine said at a March 26 Tourism Advisory Commission meeting. “... I’m sure you’re all aware of recruitment and retention challenges that come from cost of living. ... Housing is not just another aspect of what the city works on: It’s really central to a lot of the city’s goals.”
As of 2022, 918 people were commuting into the city for work, according to Region 9 data.
The housing affordability problem isn’t just impacting low-income residents anymore, Devine said: It’s also affecting middle-income workers’ ability to afford reliable housing.
“Our cost burden and our risk of financial catastrophe really are spreading up from what would be considered low income occupations into our middle-income occupations, including a lot of our public service workers ... (and) essential workers,” he said.
Median home prices are affordable only to people making about 200% of the area median income, Devine said.
This means more employees are renting and fewer people are able to access long-term, stable housing – which can impact the amount of time an employee remains in a role.
Job growth has outpaced housing production in La Plata County since around 2012, according to a discussion at the meeting.
Over the next five years, the county must build 1,500 to 1,600 new homes just to keep up with projected job growth, and about 1,100 of the homes should be owner‑occupied to maintain the current homeownership rate, the commission said.
The current homeownership rate in Durango is around 55%, Devine said.
“... We believe that multi generational community needs to be connected and thriving, and it needs the ability for families to establish (long‑term roots),” he said. “We see declining proportions of families with children in the city. We’re seeing increased commuting from outside the region ... longer renter tenure and fewer ownership pathways.”
Though in-town and countywide home prices are up, cost for land in La Plata County and Durango mountain condos and townhomes are down 57.2% and 15.3% between the two quarters, respectively.
One- to 10-acre land plots sold for around $187,000 in the first quarter of 2025, compared with $80,000 in the first quarter of this year.
Wells said what looks like a significant price drop for land parcels is more of a statistical illusion than anything.
There are generally fewer land sales in the first quarter of the year, he said, and the small sample size can make data from these periods appear more shocking than what the overall data across the year reflects.
This insight rings true, based on recent data. Fourteen parcels of land were sold in the first quarter of 2025 versus 35 sold in the second quarter of 2025.
A decrease in prices of Durango mountain condos and townhomes from the first quarter of 2025 to 2026 can be attributed to a few factors, Wells said.
Rising ownership costs – specifically and especially homeowners association fees – and higher interest rates have decreased high-end demand, meaning most sales are in lower price tiers, Wells said. This means the monetary shift between quarters doesn’t necessarily reflect a large-scale drop in value, but rather shifting patterns of what’s selling when.
epond@durangoherald.com
