Home sales during the first quarter of 2022 resemble trends set in 2021, with rising prices and dwindling inventory in La Plata County. On top of that, interest rates on mortgages are expected to rise this year, further reducing the purchasing power of prospective homebuyers.

A report released Saturday by the Durango Area Association of Realtors shows the number of units sold during the first quarter of 2022 more closely resembles the number of units sold during the first quarter 2020 than the same time period last year. Fewer units were sold during those quarters than in the first quarter of 2021.

While the number of units sold appears to have stabilized in January through March, Deven Meininger, DAAR president elect, said the return to pre-pandemic numbers of fewer units sold is not indicative of broader real estate market trends.

Rick Lorenz, broker at Wells Group in Durango, said fewer units selling during the first quarter of this year compared with same period last year might be a signal that the turbulent real estate market is beginning to mellow.

But all the same, available homes fell from 128 last year to just 105 this year at the end of the first quarter, making the market difficult to navigate for prospective buyers, he said.

In Durango, the median home price rose to $670,608, a 15% increase from the first quarter of 2021. At the same time, Durango had 33% fewer units sold compared with the first quarter of 2021.

The number of units sold when it came to country homes, Bayfield in-town homes, and Durango condos and townhomes during this quarter resembled 2020 statistics more so than 2021 stats. That was not the case, however, with Durango Mountain homes, townhomes and condos.

Meininger said those homes in the Purgatory area largely represent the second-home market, which are not as susceptible to inventory crunches as other market segments.

Lisa Bloomquist, executive director of mortgage assistance nonprofit Homesfund, said the market is “awful” for first-time buyers.

“It’s really horrible for people who are trying to buy a home in this area,” she said. “And especially if they’re first-time homebuyers.”

Home prices are high, wages have not caught up with the costs of housing, there’s a severe shortage of available units and interest rates climb upward every day, Bloomquist said.

“As far as I know, there are still cash buyers out there that are outbidding people,” she said.

Lorenz confirmed Bloomquist’s suspicions. He said in his analysis that cash purchases “represent a considerably larger percentage of the transactions this year,” with 69 homes sold for cash, or a little over 34% of total purchases, from January through March.

Fifty-three homes, or 21% of purchases, were bought with cash last year across the same time frame, he said.

“It’s really, really, really awful for people trying to get in,” Bloomquist said.

In her recent experience, people have approached Homesfund looking for counseling about buying a home. They receive counseling and education and go on their way.

A few months later, Homesfund follows up with them to check on their progress. But Bloomquist said they are finding out that people are becoming discouraged with their hunts for homes because everything is outside their price ranges.

Homesfund can offer up to $75,000 for a homebuyer in Durango through its mortgage assistance program. While the assistance can help bridge the gap between a homebuyer’s low wages and the high price of a home, it’s hard to find a home that fits into that assisted range within the city, Bloomquist said.

Through Homesfund, she is seeing more and more “nonstandard” home purchases – where a family or a landlord agrees to sell a home to a buyer without the property becoming listed on the open market.

“We’re getting a lot of these deals where things are just a little bit nonstandard,” she said. “Not necessarily in a bad way, but things are nonstandard in their purchase. And that’s what people are able to get these days.”

She said she’s seeing few people taking the traditional path to homeownership with a traditional mortgage and down payment assistance.

Meanwhile, homes priced $1 million or more continue to sell at an “off the charts rate,” with 48 sales already this year compared with 28 sales during the first quarter last year, Lorenz said.

cburney@durangoherald.com