Hal Lott
Location: Durango, Colorado
January 1, 2007
Tucked into the far southwestern corner of Colorado, Durango isn’t the easiest
place to reach. During winter snows, mountain passes often close. In summer,
those same winding roads can be lined with slow-moving RVs. In other words,
coming here takes dedication. And that is precisely what keeps the place
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A $5.2 million residence offered by Horizon Properties of Durango. (Click image to enlarge)
“We are truly a frontier-feeling town,” says Geoff Overington, a
broker with Prudential Triple S Realty who was raised in Durango. “I left after
high school but quickly came back. It’s just a fantastic place to raise kids.
Just look at our outdoors. Who needs Nintendo?”
Nature indeed rules these
parts. Consider that Durango’s 15,000 residents occupy a mere five square miles,
while the surrounding San Juan National Forest, replete with pine forests, aspen
groves, streams and lakes, covers two million acres. And there’s more: epic
steep-and-deep skiing at nearby Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort,
fascinating high-country ghost-town touring outside of neighboring Silverton,
and mountain biking trails of such renown that some of the sport’s top
practitioners who have trained here now call Durango home.
And they are not
the only ones. As with many of Colorado’s lesser-known gems, Durango has
experienced a real estate boom in the past few years, and compared to places
such as Aspen, the prices seem downright modest. Me-dian home prices are in the
high-$400,000 range, while building costs run from $175 to $250 per square
foot, about half of those of tony Telluride and other marquee Colorado
destinations.
Even at the upper end of the market, deals—relatively
speaking—can be had. A renovated 6,000-square-foot Victorian in the desirable
historic downtown goes for $2.5 million, while a similarly sized five-acre
Purgatory retreat 20 minutes outside of town fetches $4.5 million. Add a couple
million dollars more to the mix and you will have a 40-acre estate on the Animas
River.
Many of Durango’s high-end buyers hail from major coastal cities such
as Los Angeles, New York and Miami, and they make use of Internet connectivity
to keep in touch with business while relaxing at their Colorado retreats.
“People interested in top properties are really starting to buy here with a
vengeance, and I’d like to think that these are folks who didn’t get where they
are today by making poor decisions,” says Jim Wotkyns of the Wells Group. “A lot
of the people we see obviously do have the money to buy in towns like Aspen, but
frankly, they come here because they don’t want the glitz. People don’t go crazy
about celebrities here—they leave them alone, and many want just that.”
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