Jackson Hole Spec Homes Offer Luxury For Less — Only $10.5 Million If You Act Now

Karns Hillside has a vacant lot no one ever developed inside the town of Jackson with a straight-on view of the Glory Bowl, a coveted mountain view in the seat of Teton County, the nation’s most affluent.

The view makes the home somewhat unusual, real estate broker Jake Kilgore told Cowboy State Daily. He is with Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty.

Kilgrow said he hopes the view alone will net the home’s builders a quick sale, but just in case, the recently finished spec home has lots of other small luxuries going for it as well.

There’s the wide-plank, white oak flooring from a company named Madeira, for example, which Kilgrow said is a bit trendy now. And there’s not one, but two large living areas to go with that killer view.

The 4,484-square-foot home on less than a half-acre has five spacious bedrooms, each with their own bath, as well as a “wonderful” and large covered deck — the better to see the Glory Bowl.

One of the really nice touches in the home is a huge window package, using brand-name slide-and-glide windows.

“They kind of like kaleidoscope together, so you can open the whole wall of the house,” Kilgrow said. “That leads out to the open, to the outdoor spaces.”

The house is somewhat contiguous to national forest lands, Kilgrow added.

“The access is just a couple doors up. From there, it’s amazing,” he said. “You can hike, mountain bike, walk your dog. It’s a really nice amenity and kind of unique to this subdivision.”

The newly finished home is one of five or six spec homes — referring to homes built on speculation — underway by Jackson Home Co. and New West Building Co.

“We’re probably the largest spec home builder in Teton County,” Kilgrow said. “And we just look for, you know, A+ locations, and hopefully the homes will speak for themselves. You know they’re beautiful.”

Spec Homes Can Mean Luxury For Less

One of the things that makes spec homes attractive to buyers is that these turnkey options usually come with a few extra bells and whistles to sweeten the deal and prompt a quick sale.

That way, the builder can quickly get his money back and move on to other spec houses, while the homeowner gets a few amenities typical for a custom-built home for less money.

That usually means a spec home is a quick route to luxury for less. But this is Jackson Hole, where nothing about real estate is usual.

While a spec home might more usually be less than $500,000, give or take depending on the particular market, the Karns Hillside home has been listed for $10.5 million — just above the $10 million threshold that’s now considered a luxury home sale in Jackson.

Despite the price tag, Kilgrow believes he will have no trouble moving the home quickly.

And, based on other market analyst predictions, he’s probably right. Interest rates are headed down, summer is around the corner. Those two factors have associate broker Devon Viehman with The Viehman Group predicting that everyone who has been on the fence waiting to buy a home in Jackson will be pulling that trigger this summer.

Kilgrow agrees.

“I personally have probably six what I would consider really good buyers right now,” Kilgrow said. “They are just waiting for the right thing, or whatever their various timing needs are, but, you know, they are buyers for sure.”

More Spec Homes On The Way

One of the other things that sets spec homes in Jackson apart from spec homes in most other markets of the country is their size and their amenities.

The spec home in Karns Hillside at Rodeo Drive has 4,484 square feet on an almost half-acre lot inside the town of Jackson, as well as five bedrooms and four full and one partial bathrooms.

“Five bedrooms is just kind of the magic number for homes (here),” Kilgrow said. “You know, so you’ve got kids, you’ve got family, you’ve got guests. You can kind of house everyone.”

And the three-car heated garage?

“Yeah, you kind of need three,” Kilgrow said. “You know, you have a lot of toys and gear in Jackson. Once you put two cars in there, you have all this other stuff, all the fun things.”

The interior design, meanwhile, has been kept classic and timeless, Kilgrow said.

“We work with local architects, but we also have our own design teams and they kind of have their own look on some of these houses,” Kilgrow said. “It’s kind of a timeless refined, traditional interior fit and finish. This is an interior design we’ve done before, and people really seem to like it.”

Kilgrow said the company he works with, Jackson Home Co. and New West Building Co., has two homes on the market now and another four going vertical.

Two more are in the planning stages after that.

“There’s not a lot of brand new construction in the market, so I think that also sets us apart a little bit from what the other inventory is,” Kilgrow said. “People want new, they want fresh. They want something that has nice architecture, and we kind of check all those boxes.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.