Historically, October is the apex month for residential real estate sales in the Park City market. The opening month of Q4 is typically when summer’s window shoppers merge with pre-winter consumers to create peak deal flow.

While this October underperformed this trend, lagging behind September’s closings by 6%, it represents a meaningful bounce back from the same period in 2022 when closings began a 10 month slump.

From October 2022 through July 2023, the local market never crested 100 residential sales in a single month. The most recent 90 days saw a meaningful jump that portends a more active season to come.

Despite sluggish transaction volume, both median and average price have continued to climb. This reflects the consumer’s reluctance to move on any property that is considered sub-premium whether for function or price. What remains are elite transactions within Park City’s most premium communities giving the appearance of a universally rising tide.

In fact, the share of sales at prices greater than $1 million and $2 million have increased year over year, despite fewer overall transactions. This is an obvious reaction to rising interest rates having an outsized impact on entry level purchasers that are leveraging into a first home.

The supply of available listings has begun to wane, typical of the season when peak sales absorption coincides with some number of sellers pulling listings from the market to be ski leased or otherwise occupied for winter use. 580 active listings indicates a market tilting slightly in the buyer’s favor. This is likely disproportionate to consumers in the lower reaches of the market given the pure absence of distress nor meaningful impact of rising interest rates at the  high end.

If the market is able to produce average results in the final two months of 2023, the year’s total number of transactions may slightly exceed 2022. However, the momentum gained in the second half of 2023 is a meaningful year-over-year improvement.