Have you been thinking about buying or selling land in the Colorado Springs area? If so, it helps to have a good idea of how much land in El Paso County is currently selling for. In this article, I will only be discussing lots that are located in El Paso County and are at least five acres or larger.
Although we had a blizzard in March and regular snow showers through late May, the weather did not seem to hurt the real estate market. Prices per acre are up and the length of time it takes to sell a well priced track of land is down. Similar to residential homes, over priced land listings tend to linger on the market. As of May 31, 2019, the sales prices of land has ranged from $673 per acre up to $67,000 per acre. For the same time period last year, the sales prices ranged from $469 per acre up to $52,894 per acre.
That said, we have not had nearly as many land sales this year as we did for the same time period last year. 107 sales through May last year versus 63 this year. Although weather may have played a small role, the decrease is more likely due to low inventory levels. Buyers simply do not have many places to choose from as they had in the past.
Number of Active Land Listings in El Paso County Over the Last Ten Years
Source: Pikes Peak Association of Realtors MLS.
On January 6, 2019 – There was 158 lots available for sale that did not have contracts pending. According to this PPMLS chart, that represented the lowest inventory of land listings for sale in the last 10 years.
As of today, June 8, 2019 – There are 212 lots available for sale. (Of those, there are 182 lots available for sale that do not already have contracts. 30 have contracts pending but the sellers do not mind if potential buyers want to look at the property.)
Now that we are in the summer months, this has historically been a popular time of year to list land for sale. This year, everything is pretty and green from all the rain.
Are you ready to sell your place?
Major considerations that determine the sales price per acre:
El Paso County is very large. According to the sheriff’s office, El Paso County covers 2,130 square miles. Depending on traffic, it may take 45 minutes to an hour to drive from one end of the county to the other. Some lots in El Paso county is are nestled areas on the side of the mountains. Others are covered with pine trees. Yet other lots are situated on gently rolling ranch land with few trees. Instead, they may, or may not, have beautiful views of Pikes Peak off at a distance.
Please remember, when you look at my real estate market reports that I choose to only discuss properties that are at least five acres in size. I pull my date from the Pikes Peak Association of Realtor’s (PPAR) multiple listing service. That means that if at least one side of the transaction was not handled by a Realtor whose data is included in PPAR records, the sale in not included in these figures.
Although I discuss rural residential prices and land prices for the county as a whole, it is very important to realize that the location and size of the lot has a very large impact on the actual values in the Colorado Springs area.
1. Location
Consider these March 2019 sales of 5 acre lots in El Paso County that did not have water:
- 5 acre lot in the Black Forest sold for $48,000 per acre
- 5 acre lot in Falcon area sold for $16,000 per acre
- 5 acre lot in Hanover area sold for $3,600 per acre
Note, I choose March sales as an example because all three areas had a sale of at least one five acre lot in the month.
2. Size of the Property
As of May 31, 2019; these are the average prices per acre based on lot size:
- 5 acre lots sold for average of: $23,530 per acre
- 35-40 acre lots sold for an average of: $2,774 per acre
- 46-99 acres lots sold for an average of: $1,250 per acre
- 100-319 acres lots sold for an average of: $858 per acre
3. Other Considerations
Although the size of the lot and the location have the most significant impact on land prices in El Paso county, several other considerations come are typically factored in:
- Existence of one or more water wells
- Type of water rights that will convey
- Access – road frontage or easements?
- Access to utilities
- Topography – flood plain, whether it’s buildable, views, etc
- Roads – County maintained or privately maintained?
- Barns, shops or other outbuildings
- Fencing
- Condition of the land/pastures
——————————————————————————————–
Current vs Historical Sales Results
2019: January – May
- Total number of sales: 63
- Median Price per acre was $5,571 Median sized lot was 10 acres.
- Average Price per acre was $14,166. Average sized lot was 29 acres.
2018: January – May
- Total number of sales: 106
- Median Price per acre was $4,060 (Half the properties sold for more. Half sold for less.) Median sized lot was 35 acres.
- Average Price per acre was $12,339 Average sized lot was 40 acres.
2017: January – May
- Total number of sales: 71
- Median Price per acre was $8,804 Median sized lot was 10 acres.
- Average Price per acre was $12,348. Average sized lot was 46 acres.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Snapshot of the Current Market of Land for Sale in the Colorado Springs Area
As of June 8, 2019:
- There were 182 lots that are 5 acres or larger available for sale in El Paso county, CO. The prices are ranging from a low of $25,000 for a five acre lot in the Hanover area. The high is $9.8 million for a 1,736 acre lot on Bradley Road to the east of Security Widefield and South of Highway 94. At $5,645 per acre is priced for its future development potential.
- 43 properties have contracts pending. The asking prices ranged from $19,500 for a 5.2 acre lot in Hanover area up to $6.7 million. The latter is for a 5,387 acre ranch on Highway 94, between Colorado Springs and Ellicott. (That works out to $1,244 per acre.)
- 63 lots have sold between January 1 and May 31, 2019.
- 8 lots in January
- 10 lots in February
- 18 lots in March
- 15 in April
- 10 lots in May
Median Number of Days on Market Down
This year, a number of properties that had been on the market for over a year sold.
Out of the 63 sales:
- One 5 acre lot had been available for sale for 4,251 days (over 11 years)
- One property that sold had been on the market for 875 days (over two years).
- Five other properties had been on the market for over one year.
The median number of days that a lot was available for sale was 72 days. In other words, half of the lots that did sale were on the market for less than 72 days. Half were on the market for over 72 days.
So, despite the weather, the median days on median DOM is lower than 2018’s median days on market.
2019 YTD (year to date) median days on market: 72 days.
2018 Median Days on Market for Lots 5 acres and up: 102 days.
2017 Median Days on Market for Lots 5 acres and up: 81 days.
Details for Different Sized Lots
5-9 Acre Lots
29 lots that were between 5-9 acres sold. They were on the market for an average of 80 days. The average price per acre was $23,530.
- Black Forest/Tri Lakes area: 14 lots sold for between $12,868 – $67,000 an acre.
- Calhan area: 1 five acre lot sold for $15,230 an acre. It should be noted that lot had electric, two water wells, septic and two run down trailers.
- Falcon area: 3 lots sold for between $10,536 – $21,318 per acre
- Fountain Valley area: 5 lots sold. Most were between $1,818 – $3,600 per acre. One was $27,789 per acre. The lower priced properties in a subdivision in the Hannover area. The higher priced property was in subdivision just outside of Fountain. According to the MLS listing, it had city water and utilities available.
- Peyton area: 4 lots sold. They sold for $7,592 – $20,697 per acre.
10 – 20 Acre Lots
8 lots have sold in this group. They sold in an average of 182 days. The average price was $19,503 per acre.
- Black Forest area: 3 lots – $23,413 -$42,500 per acre
- Calhan: 1 at $4,500 per acre
- Falcon area: 2 lots – $8,222 – $9,250 per acre
- Peyton area: 1 at $14,026 per acre
- Tri Lakes area – 1 at $30,694 per acre
35-40 Acre Lots
19 lots sold in this size group. The prices ranged from $848 per acre to $5,571 per acre. The price per acre was in close correlation with how close into town it was.
1 lot in Peyton: $4,250 per acre
6 lots closest to Falcon – $2,971 – $4,996 per acre
2 lots on north side of 94 – $2,138 – $2,500 an acre
3 lots south of 94 – $1,250 to $1,875 per acre
1 lot just east of Colorado Springs and South of 94 – $3,685 per acre
5 lots in the Yoder and Rush areas: Raw land – $848 – $1,000 per acre. One 40 acre lot with electric & two metal shop buildings with concrete floors sold for $100,000 total. That worked out to $2,500 acre
100- 319 Acre Lots
1. 120 acres in Calhan at the corner of Big Springs and Salady sold for $132,000 ($1,100 per acre). The property consisted of native pasture grass which had not been grazed on in a number of years. It came with 3 acre ft of annual deeded water rights which allows up to 3 domestic water wells. Utilities were on an adjoining lot. The property was split by a seasonal creek.
2. 281 acres off of MidJones Rd, Calhan – $189,000 ($673 per acre). It should be noted that this property was assessed via an easement. It had a stock tank powered by generator.
3. 160 acres in Yoder at the Calhan Hwy and Hwy 94 sold for $152,500 ($953 per acre). The 160 acres was made up of open pasture land. There was an old, grandfathered well for livestock on the property. The seller did not know whether it still worked.
4. 140 acres on Johnson Rd in Rush sold for $98,000 ($700 per acre). This property consisted of 80 acres of native grassland. It also had another 60 acres that was enrolled in CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) until 2020. The seller was issued a water well permit but the well had not been installed.
The Google satellite snapshot from the MLS website below will give you an idea of where each of these tracts of land that sold is located. The item number above correlates to the number below.
To Summarize
Despite the weather and increasing prices, buyers seem to be very interested in purchasing land in the Colorado Springs area. The median number of days on market has decreased. Available inventory is low. Prices per acre are increasing when compared to the same period last year.
On the residential rural side, there is a strong seller’s market for homes that are priced less than $700,000. Prices are continuing to rise and there is a limited supply of smaller, affordable homes in great shape. The combination of these factors makes land purchases in 2019 even more attractive.
As a reminder, when you look at the sales result, use caution when “generalizing about land and property values.” The existence of water wells, sheds and barns, plus a lot of extra junk or old singlewides play a role in the value.
If you would like more information about your specific property, please do not hesitate to call or email me.
If you ware interested in selling a piece of property in the Colorado Springs area, I would be more than happy to assist you.
Sincerely,
Sondra Meyer
719-761-6272
sondra@starviewre.com
Note: Data was pulled from the PPAR MLS for properties on 5 acres and up by Sondra Meyer. While every attempt was made to be accurate, I can not guarantee accuracy. I have made typos or read numbers wrong in the past. This market report should be used as a general overview of real estate trend for properties 5 acres and up in El Paso County.