When Devon and David Viehman moved to Jackson in 1992, one of the first things they did was shop around for land to build a home.
That gives the Jackson Hole Realtors a snapshot of just how much prices in this market have changed.
“When we first moved here, the average sale price for a single-family lot valley-wide was $181,000,” David Viehman said on his latest podcast with the Viehman Group’s third-quarter Jackson Hole real estate report.
The couple soon found a 1.5-acre property with beautiful Teton views for a mere $70,000.
“We actually made an offer of $55,000,” David Viehman recalled on the podcast with a chuckle. “They laughed, we laughed and went away.”
Today, though, no one is laughing at vacant land prices in Teton County. That’s because vacant land with a stunning view comes with a stunning price tag.
“That lot that we could have purchased for $70,000 back in 1992 is still vacant,” David Viehman said. “And believe it or not, it would fetch well over $2 million today.”
Today’s average price tag for single-family lots valley-wide is a whopping $5.57 million, according to the Viehman Group’s latest Jackson Hole real estate report. In the town of Jackson, nice lots with a Teton view backed by national forest land averages $1.13 million for a 0.17-acre lot.
“There’s only one lot in the entire valley that’s listed under a million,” David Viehman added. “And it’s sitting up behind Sidewinders at $850,000.”
Construction Costs Are Outrageous Too
That’s just the beginning of the stunning price tag involved for building a relatively modest home in Jackson, the Viehmans say in their report.
“We did reach out to several general contractors in the area, trying to determine the cost to build a dream home in Jackson and our bedroom communities,” David Viehman said. “What we found was to build a quality home with above-average finishes, you’re starting at about $1,000 a square foot in Jackson, and it can quickly go up to $2,500 a square foot.”
In Victor and Driggs in Idaho, the costs drop to $500 per square foot, and in Star Valley, it’s around $450 a square foot.
Applying that to a 2,500-square-foot home, starting with a minimum of $1 million for the land, the cost to build a new home in Jackson adds up to a ballpark of $3.5 million.
“For some, that’s not going to be a problem,” David Viehman said. “But, for many others, it’s basically their dream of building a home in Jackson Hole has faded away.”
That’s led some to go with remodeling instead, Devon added.
“We’re seeing a lot of older homes preserved, especially in town,” she said. “People are opting to remodel them instead of scraping them down to build new. Which is actually a good thing. We’re preserving housing.”
The cost of remodeling can also be significantly cheaper.
“The home is already built, and maybe you’ll put in a couple hundred a square foot for remodeling,” David Viehman said.
Not Many Vacant Properties Left
Jackson has 1,242 vacant, single-family platted lots in the valley, according to the Viehman Group’s third-quarter report. The lots range in size from 0.17 acres within Jackson city limits to 35-plus-acre lots outside of Jackson. Each lot allows just one primary residence.
Of these available vacant lots, 100 are in the town of Jackson itself.
Outside of Jackson, the largest concentration of vacant lots is north of Highway 22 to Moran, where there are 418 lots. Next highest is the Westbank, which has 393 vacant lots, 143 of them north of Wilson and 169 south of it. Teton Village has 56 and Teton Pines 25.
There are an additional 216 lots south of Highway 22 to Swing Bridge and 115 from Swing Bridge to the southern county line.
The low inventory of vacant land is matched by a much lower inventory of active listings for all types, whether single-family dwelling or condo. Listings have decreased 4% to 248 listings, the fourth lowest in 40 years.
None of the active listings are available for less than $1 million, and only nine are available for less than $2 million.
Overall, average listing prices for all segments of the market are down 2% to $6.42 million, but single-family home sales in particular are up 2% and have hit a new record at $5.3 million.
More than half the activity in the single-family home segment of the market is in the $3 million plus range.
Outdoor Recreation Has Created A New Boom Town
What’s driving the high prices for real estate in Jackson seems to be part of an overall trend that has people of means, who can work remotely, seeking out towns like Jackson which have world-class recreational opportunities.
According to a study of wealth-attracting counties by Jackson town councilman and economist Jonathan Schechter, eight of the 10 top wealth-attracting counties in the nation right now have great outdoor amenities. That’s driving a new kind of economic boom, and Teton County is at the head of the pack.
Part of what’s enabling this shift is technology, which is allowing people of means to work remotely. That means they can select the communities where they live for the amenities, instead of being tied to a particular community for the particular job that is sustaining their lifestyle.
This influx of wealth on the hunt for property has created a lot of growing pains for Teton County, including dramatic rises in property values which have in turn fueled equally dramatic property tax increases.
It’s also pushed a lot of the workers who serve Jackson’s tourism sector to surrounding communities, like Star Valley in Wyoming and Driggs and Victor in Idaho.
But the trend is not entirely limited to the Jackson Hole area. There are lots of places in Wyoming that offer great outdoor amenities, and many of them are seeing similar trends.
“At a certain level, Jackson Hole has served as the gateway drug to the rest of Wyoming,” Schecther said. “People recognize you can have a good life here, but perhaps it’s too expensive (in Jackson). That opens their eyes to the fact that there are a lot of other great places in Wyoming.
“And so, as pressures grow here, population grows in a lot of other places, too, so many places are sharing in this increase in property tax values.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
