The Vail Valley market for ‘ultra luxury’ real estate continues to expand, in Vail and beyond

A home that set a Vail sales record in 2020 is back on the market with a new, higher price.

The property, a former duplex at 99 and 100 and Vail Road, near the Vail Interfaith Chapel, sold in 2020 for a record $57.2 million. The property has now been converted to a single-family home and is listed for $78 million.

Longtime local broker Tye Stockton is the listing broker on the sale. He declined to talk to the Vail Daily about the property, but according to an email the home is now known as “Alpenstrasse.” The home has 11 bedrooms, 15 full bathrooms and has more than 15,000 square feet.

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Longtime local Realtor Ron Byrne’s firm, Ron Byrne and Associates, brokered the 2020 sale. He noted that the property was once known as the Webster House, and was under construction for five years before its 2020 sale to biotech entrepreneur Kevin Ness. That sale, like most high-end sales in the valley, was an all-cash sale.

Byrne, who lives near the Vail Road home, said the property has been under construction for some time to convert it to a single-family home. And, he added, while it may or may not bring its full asking price, “I anticipate it will bring a very high price.”

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Ready to shatter a record?

If the Vail Road home does sell for anywhere close to its listing price, it will shatter the 2024 single-family record set last year by a $40 million sale on Rockledge Road. Craig Denton of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Colorado Properties said that sale set a “new benchmark” for values in Vail.

“It shows people understand the value here,” Denton said. “People feel comfortable investing their money here.”

The Vail Road listing is the top of the market at the moment, but there are a number of other, less-expensive listings that would have set local records just a few years ago.

Byrne’s firm has a home listed for $25 million in the Vail Golf Course neighborhood. If that home — which has an in-home observatory — sells for its asking price, it will set a new record for that neighborhood.

Another home is listed for $25 million along Lake Creek. Again, that would set a new record for the area.

“We’re seeing unbelievable family estates for sale,” Byrne said.

And the luxury market continues its upward climb.

Byrne noted his firm is developing a duplex on Beaver Dam Road in Vail that will probably have a total sale price of $50 million when finished. That property started with Byrne paying $19 million for the home on the property, which was then demolished.

That home sold for less than $1 million 35 years ago, Byrne said.

Denton recently sold another home on Mill Creek Circle for $26 million that will be torn down. He sold the same home in 1984 for $900,000.

The higher end of the market is growing across the valley.

Crissy Rumford is the vice president and managing broker of LIV Sotheby’s International Realty Vail Valley Offices. Rumford noted that in 2024, there were 119 sales of $5 million or more. Of those, three were for $25 million or more. As of the end of February of this year, there are already 103 active listings for $5 million or more, with nine priced at $25 million or more.

Again, that’s just through the end of February.

On the other hand, it’s taking longer to sell those homes. Still, it’s early in the year, so it’s probably too soon to tell whether that’s a trend or not, Rumford said.

Is it a unique phenomenon?

While prices at the high end are rising, local broker Mark Gordon said that phenomenon isn’t unique to the Vail Valley.

Gordon noted that it isn’t so much that real estate in Vail is getting more expensive, but that real estate nationwide is rapidly becoming more costly. Vail is just reflective of the higher end of that market.

What makes Vail — not the Vail Valley, but Vail itself — different is the resilience of values.

Despite downturns over the years, Vail’s real estate values have resisted declines over the years.

When real estate values in the rest of the valley dropped by 30% or more during the depths of the national recession that began in 2008, both Gordon and Byrne noted that real estate values in Vail itself held firm during that time.

“That shows Vail is still doing things right,” Gordon said. “People who can afford to purchase anywhere in the world … still want to purchase in Vail.”

And, Byrne said, he remains “very bullish” on the high end of the market.

“People are looking for a safe haven (for their money),” he said, something financial markets can’t match. After all, no one is making any more Beaver Dam Roads.