Jackson Hole's Housing Market Isn't Coming Back Down to Earth Anytime Soon

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Fri Apr 4, 2025, 01:14 PM - Edit history (1)

I wish I could include some of the photographs that ran with the article. They are gorgeous.

The story is in the Mansion section of The Wall Street Journal. on Friday, with the title "Jackson Hole, Now With Aspen Prices."

Real Estate
Luxury Homes
Jackson Hole’s Housing Market Isn’t Coming Back Down to Earth Anytime Soon
Prices at the luxury level remain as high as ever, as those who bought property during Covid show no signs of selling

Median home-sale prices in Wyoming’s Jackson Hole have doubled since Covid.

By E.B. Solomont | Photographs by Taylor Glenn for WSJ
[e-mail]
April 2, 2025 9:00 pm ET

Growing up, Susan Been traveled every summer by RV from North Carolina to Wyoming’s Jackson Hole, a 60-mile long valley between the Teton and Gros Ventre mountains. So in 2020, the Atlanta resident jumped at the chance to buy a newly built vacation home in downtown Jackson. ... At the time, homes of that size were trading for around $4 million, a number that has since jumped to about $8 million, thanks to a Covid-era price surge that hasn’t let up. In fact, about six months after buying her roughly 4,400-square-foot Jackson home, Been got an offer she couldn’t refuse. She sold the house, but immediately regretted it and in 2023 bought a roughly 3,000-square-foot home down the street built by the same developer.

“Do I think Jackson Hole is a great investment? Absolutely. But I didn’t think about it like that,” said Been, who is in her 50s. She was more focused on being able to walk from her house to her favorite downtown shops, restaurants and bars. She declined to say how much she paid for her homes, and Wyoming is a nondisclosure state where sales prices aren’t publicly recorded.

For years, Jackson Hole’s natural beauty, bustling downtown and laid-back lifestyle have attracted the likes of Harrison Ford and Sandra Bullock. During Covid, well-heeled buyers arrived in droves, drawn by the wide-open spaces and Wyoming’s lack of state income tax, corporate income tax or estate tax. The deluge of buyers quickly absorbed available properties, driving up home values. It also attracted developers eager to build and sell more homes at higher prices. ... While the pace of sales has since tapered off, prices remain as high as they have ever been, particularly at the top of the market. Last year, the median home sale price in Jackson Hole was $3.4 million, doubling from $1.7 million in 2019, according to the Jackson Hole Report. In 2024, there were 31 homes listed for $10 million or more, roughly double the amount listed prepandemic.

Generally speaking, homes that sold for $8 million to $10 million before Covid are now fetching $15 million, said real-estate agent Carlos Ordoñez of Hall and Hall. “The Covid bump was real,” he said, adding: “A lot of people would be surprised to learn what $10 million doesn’t get you in Jackson compared to before Covid.”

{snip}

Write to E.B. Solomont at [e-mail]

[snowybirdie]

1. I just

Went out and bought a new microwave for my condo to save a few bucks before tariffs kicked in. But so happy to see how the other half lives in their luxurious vacation homes.

[twodogsbarking]

2. More like the other half-percent. 99.5% live different lives.