Seller's market:

The conversation over many a recent cup of coffee has centered on how many people seem to be moving to this area. It’s a trend that appears to be continuing across the Midwest, but has Crook County been a part of it?

Indeed we have, says County Assessor Theresa Curren. The total number of property sales in 2020 was significantly higher than the year before.

“The total sales of real property in 2019 was 462, and in 2020 there were 638,” she says. “Right now, once you put a house on, it’s basically sold.”

Nor are things slowing down for 2021, she says. So far this year, the office has recorded 122 more deeds between January and April than it did last year, which is almost double the amount.

To put that in perspective, the office recorded a total of 665 deeds in 2020, including both sales and property changing hands through methods such as within families or by placing it into a trust. By the end of April this year, 263 deeds had already been recorded compared to 141 by the end of April, 2020.

“We have people calling all the time asking for contact information for people because they want to go ask them if they’re willing to sell their properties. Everybody wants to buy right now,” Curren says.

In Sundance, for example, there have been 30 sales within city limits during the last year alone. However, whether or not a property is located within a municipality does not seem to be the main driving factor.

Instead, the increase in sales has been relatively spread out.

“We’re finding that it’s countywide,” she says. “The farther south you are in the county, the more people want that property, I’ve found. The north side we don’t see that much because those are mostly all ag.”

One thing that does seem to be appealing to homebuyers, however, is the presence of trees on a property. It seems that buyers are very interested in these scenic pieces of land.

Though the increase is occurring across Crook County, it’s also possible to spot a few trends. There are hotspots in or around the municipalities, Curren says, and also in Pine Ridge.

“Pine Ridge is very high right now, with a 35% increase from last year,” she says.

Sale prices in Sundance meanwhile increased by an average of $10,000 last year, while Moorcroft increased by $12,000, Hulett went up by about $80,000 and Pine Haven went up by about $40,000.

Residential properties of all types and quality levels located inside Moorcroft city limits have actually decreased in valuation. Outside of Moorcroft, however, “Is a pretty big hotspot.”

While it’s great news for sellers in these hotspot areas, next year’s property tax appraisals will need to factor in these high sale amounts to create an overall average for that type of property across the county, which will cause an overall increase.

“With mass appraisals, I have to use all sales that are comparable – I can’t just pick and choose which ones I want to use,” she explains.

However, it’s worth noting that, because Curren uses several years’ worth of sales to create her valuations, it won’t just be the 2020 figures that influence next year’s numbers.

Are people buying residential land, rather than pre-built homes? No, says Curren: 2020 saw an increase in average selling price of vacant residential lots from $10,381 per acre in 2019 to $12,825 per acre, but no change at all in the actual number of properties that were sold.

“In 2019, there were 27, and in 2020 there were also 27,” Curren says.

It seems that residential sales have seen the biggest increase – houses that can immediately be occupied. A total of 108 such sales were made in 2020, compared to 83 the year before.

On the other hand, improved properties actually decreased in valuation countywide from $226,323 per acre to $218,527 per acre. However, Curren notes that this change, among others, could have been due to individual sales in either of the two years that were either very high or very low, which could potentially skew the data.

Sales of agricultural land have also been part of the trend. In 2019, just 20 vacant agricultural properties sold within Crook County, at an average of $2288 per acre; in 2020, the number of sales leaped to 56 and the average per acre also climbed to $2435.

In 2019, buyers paid an average of $163,736 for a vacant ag property. In 2020, the average purchase skyrocketed to $463,508.

Smaller acreages tended to sell for higher prices; the highest amount paid per acre, for example, was $6917 for a 36-acre plot. There would be nothing to prevent a buyer from building a home on such a plot, Curren confirms, whether or not it currently qualifies as ag land.

In other words, if a person purchased a lot marked as agricultural and built a new house on it, the Assessor’s Office would change its designation accordingly. At least the one acre on which the house sits would then become residential land.

Whether people are purchasing these smaller lots with the intention of building a house is not clear, however – and may not be clear for a while yet due to the cost of construction at this time.

“We know for sure that materials and labor have gone through the roof,” Curren says. “The number of houses built has actually gone down over time.”

Not all the purchases have been made from outside Crook County, of course.

“We’ve got tons of local people who are buying,” Curren says. It’s not possible to say what proportion of the recent sales are locals, as opposed to people moving to the area, because a buyer may have changed their address prior to filing the appropriate paperwork with the county.

However, those that are on record with out-of-state addresses come from 32 different states from all across the union, stretching from California and Nevada across to New York and New Jersey. This compares to buyers from 21 states in 2019.

Some buyers are meanwhile coming to Crook County from other parts of Wyoming, ranging from Cheyenne to Basin and Casper to Douglas, while at least one purchaser is from outside the country.

“It’s everybody,” Curren says.

Whether buyers are looking for a permanent move, a second home, a getaway space or simply an investment for the future, it seems fair to say that Crook County is currently a seller’s market.