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La Plata County, Colorado

Single-family vs. condo trends, market pressure signals, and 5-year price history. Source: Redfin.

Median Sale Price
$755,000
+43.5% YoY
Active Inventory
286
Days on Market
97 days
Price Drops
17.8%

Single-Family vs. Condo

Source: Redfin (property-type breakdown)
Single-Family Median
$856,750
+4.2% YoY
Condo / Co-op Median
$307,500
-15.8% YoY
SFR vs. Condo YoY Gap
+19.9%
SFR outperforming condos
DOM: SFR vs. Condo
63d / 177d
SFR / Condo

Buyer vs. Seller Market Indicators

Latest month — Redfin
Months of Supply
5.7 mo
Balanced

Inventory ÷ monthly sales. Below 3 = strong seller market; 3-6 balanced; above 6 = buyer market.

Sale-to-List Ratio
96.9%
Below asking

Median closing price ÷ original list price. Above 100% = homes routinely closing above asking.

% Sold Above List
12%
Buyer-favorable

Share of closed sales priced above asking. The single cleanest read on bidder competition.

What does your sqft target cost in La Plata County, Colorado?

$415/sqft median (Redfin)
+$0 adj
+$0 adj
optional
Estimated price
$829,331
Near median (+10% vs median)
Region median
$755,000
all homes
Price-tier reverse lookup — what sqft does each price band buy?
$600,000
≈ 1,447 sqft
$1,200,000
≈ 2,894 sqft
$2,000,000
≈ 4,823 sqft
$5,000,000
≈ 12,058 sqft

Estimate = (median $/sqft × your sqft) + bed/bath/lot adjustments. Bed and bath adjustments use Appraisal Institute / Fannie Mae standard rules of thumb (~$15K/extra bedroom, ~$20K/extra bathroom vs. a 3bd/2ba baseline; half-bath = half adj). Lot premium is a $1.50/sqft heuristic beyond a 6,000 sqft baseline — accuracy varies sharply by urban infill vs. acreage market. Quality, condition, year built, and HOA are not modeled here. For a deeper county-level hedonic AVM, see AVM Lite.

Rent + invest vs. buy + own — backtested

15-yr rolling history · S&P 500
Property type:
Upfront capital committed (both paths): $174K = 20% down + 3% closing on a $755K home
BUY + OWN
Median ending wealth $663K $405K real
Net gain on $174K upfront: $489K
Range: $663K → $663K
Wealth = home value (appreciated at 3%/yr) − remaining mortgage − 6% selling cost. Gain = wealth − upfront. Leveraged appreciation on full $755K asset comes from the 20% down.
RENT + INVEST
Median ending portfolio $2.17M $1.45M real
Net gain on $835K contributed: $1.34M
Range: $1.04M → $5.37M
Same upfront cash + each year's (own − rent) surplus invested in S&P 500 at actual annual returns. Median renter contributed $835K total.
Median wealth delta: $1.51M in favor of RENT + INVEST
What if you'd started in a recent year? (most-recent 15yr window: 2011–2025)
WindowBuy wealthBuy gainRent wealthRent gainWealth delta
2011–2025$663K$489K$3.14M$2.31M$2.48M rent
2010–2024$663K$489K$3.20M$2.37M$2.54M rent
2009–2023$663K$489K$3.03M$2.20M$2.37M rent
2008–2022$663K$489K$2.25M$1.42M$1.59M rent
2007–2021$663K$489K$2.93M$2.10M$2.27M rent
2006–2020$663K$489K$2.50M$1.66M$1.83M rent
2005–2019$663K$489K$2.25M$1.42M$1.59M rent
2004–2018$663K$489K$1.85M$1.02M$1.19M rent

Educational tool, not investment or real-estate advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Backtests use actual annual total returns including dividends from S&P 500 (Damodaran (NYU Stern) annual total return (with dividends), 1957-present.).

Buyer model: 30-yr fixed mortgage, P&I + property tax + insurance + maintenance (1% of value/yr) + HOA. Selling cost = 6%. Investor model: down payment + annual cashflow surplus invested in the chosen index at that calendar year's actual return.

Tax model: pre-tax comparison. Toggle "after-tax mode" to apply MID, SALT, LTCG, and the Sec 121 capital-gains exclusion.

This calculator does not adjust for: PMI (assumed 20%+ down), differential transaction costs by state, lifestyle factors (commute, schools, kids), illiquidity / forced-sale risk, or insurance availability constraints (e.g., FL/CA wildfire). Consult a fiduciary advisor and tax professional before acting on any of this.

Market Pressure Signals

Derived from Redfin trend
Inventory vs. Long-Term Avg
+9.7%
roughly balanced
DOM vs. 24-Mo Avg
+115.8%
currently 97 days
Long-Term Avg Inventory
261
Long-Term Avg DOM
45 days

Mortgage & Price Stress

State HPI + national delinquency
State HPI YoY
+1.3%
flat — pressure building
State HPI vs. Peak
0.0%
at or near peak peak 2025-10-01
National Mortgage Delinquency
1.89%
benchmark — 2026-01-01 county-grain delinquency requires paid data

State-grain HPI YoY + drawdown from peak is the cleanest free price-stress proxy. The national delinquency rate gives the macro mortgage-stress backdrop. True county-level mortgage delinquency lives in paid datasets (MBA NDS, CoreLogic LP).

Value Ratios

Median home price ÷ county median income
Value / Income
8.8×
severely overvalued
Median Household Income
$85,296
Census ACS B19013

Historically affordable markets sit at 3–4× income; over 5× is stretched, over 6× is severely overvalued. Lower ratios point to bargain opportunities.

Housing Stock & Owners

Census ACS 5-year (B19013, B01003, B25002, B25003, B25034, B25007)
Population
56,088
total residents
Total Housing Units
28,613
all units, occupied + vacant
Vacancy Rate
18.9%
high vacancy
Homeownership Rate
71.0%
of occupied units owner-occupied
Boomer Owners (65+)
25.4%
of homeowner households
Millennial / Gen-X Owners (35-54)
6.2%
of homeowner households
Pre-1949 Housing Stock
9.3%
structures built before 1949

When boomer-owner share is high, expect more inventory hitting the market over the next decade as homes transition. High vacancy + high old-stock often signals deferred-maintenance markets where buyers can negotiate.

Net Migration (IRS Tax Returns)

IRS Statistics of Income — Migration Data
Net Migration
+40
gaining people (2022–2023)
Inbound Returns
758
1,155 people moved in
Outbound Returns
739
1,115 people moved out
Net Returns
+19
household-filer basis

Top 5 Origins (where movers came from)

  1. San Juan, New Mexico — 124 returns
  2. Maricopa, Arizona — 76 returns
  3. Denver, Colorado — 67 returns
  4. Montezuma, Colorado — 63 returns
  5. Jefferson, Colorado — 51 returns

Top 5 Destinations (where movers went)

  1. San Juan, New Mexico — 166 returns
  2. Montezuma, Colorado — 92 returns
  3. Maricopa, Arizona — 81 returns
  4. Denver, Colorado — 62 returns
  5. Larimer, Colorado — 53 returns

IRS Statistics of Income tracks county-to-county migration via tax-return change-of-address. Net migration uses the exemption count (a proxy for people, including dependents). True net flow can lag by 1–2 years vs. real-time movements.

Who's Moving In (Census ACS)

Source: Census ACS B07001 (5-year)
Inbound Movers (1 yr)
5,058
9.09% of pop. — moved here from outside the county
From Other States
3,735
6.72% of pop. — interstate inbound
From Abroad
54
moved into the county from outside the U.S.
Same House 1 Year Ago
85%
stable residents

Census ACS asks where people lived 1 year ago, so this counts inbound movers but does not show outbound — true net migration would require IRS SOI parsing.

Trends

Up to 5 years of monthly data

Median Sale Price

Trailing 12 months

Active Inventory

Trailing 12 months

Days on Market

Trailing 12 months

Looking for state-level data? See Colorado statewide stats →

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