Aloha, Here we are in Aspen, Colorado and it's the off-season. It's a third week of May and things are really slowing down. It's kind of like a ghost town. It's a Sunday afternoon and as you can see there's not much happening today. Being in real estate, I went and looked at the local border realtors website here to see if there are any open houses today and there was only one open house in the entire town and I happen to miss it. It was a $50 million house directly behind me here up on Red Mountain and that was only open for a one-hour window. So things are quite quiet in the town and the question I've been asking myself is the real estate market here really slowing down?
Aspen Home Sales in May, 2025
I looked at their stats in this past month. The median home price was $13.2 million and that was down over 50% from a year ago.
A year ago that median sales price was $29.2 million so that's over 54% drop in median sales price year-over-year and we're also starting to see an increase in inventory. A year ago there were only three new homes that hit the market in April of 2024 and this past month there were nine so that was a 200% increase in single-family home listings year-over-year. So the question is, is Aspen real estate slowing down? Well you know a 54% drop in that median home price is pretty significant but my bet's on Aspen because it always seems to weather the storm and next we're gonna talk about condos a little bit.
Aspen Supply vs. Demand
In my opinion, what keeps Aspen real estate high it's once again it's a huge supply and demand issue. Here we are we've got Aspen Square right here which are vacation rental condos here in the town.
Aspen Square Condos
If you look around, unlike Honolulu you don't see any high-rises when it comes to condo inventory here and that's what really constrains the supply. I learned from a broker yesterday that the commercial height limit in the town is 42 feet. Now that's like a fraction of what we have in Honolulu. We have 400 foot high-rises say in Kakaako and Ala Moana.
Kakaako & Ala Moana Condos
Some of those big towers are 40 stories so within the small town of Aspen here I looked it up and there's like half a dozen condos that are on the market north of ten million dollars. Meanwhile on Oahu we have ten that are on the market at ten million dollars or more and four of those are gonna be in Park Lane and we've talked about this in some previous videos I did in Hawaii where you know say at a building like Park Lane it's gonna be relatively new say 2017 construction.
Park Lane in Honolulu
You're going to have all kinds of high-end amenities, ocean views and for the same basic price per square foot you know you'd be getting in Honolulu at a new newer building like Park Lane you'll be getting here for like an older building you know here in Aspen.
Calm Before Summer Rush
Once again, what keeps these prices up is just a limited supply and once again it is a little bit of a ghost town here in May they call them the shoulder seasons here because yeah there's you know it's boom it's gonna be booming like a month from now we have the upcoming food festival and then later you're gonna have the music festival and later the jazz festival but right now this is the off season here in May and the other shoulder season is gonna be in the fall where things kind of die off as well so let's continue on the condo topic here okay so the median condo price here in Aspen this past month in April was $6,250,000 that was up 84% from a year ago which was at $3,390,000. That's a huge whopping increase and I think what happens here in Aspen is because there's so little deals you're gonna see a huge fluctuation you know in the price one thing I like to point out while we're here is right across the street is gonna be the Elks Club and I always have to say coming from Honolulu that the Elks Club has the most prime real estate.
Elks Club in Aspen
Elks Club in Waikiki
All across the country the Elks Club in Honolulu is directly on the ocean and talk about where this is located it's like a prime location right in the heart of town here. Back to the condo topic, there's there's huge fluctuations in price but you know it's a desirable commodity that people would love to have here in this town because it's just such a limited amount of inventory the highest condo listing currently $60 million so we're gonna take a walk and check that out see what you get for $60 million okay we crossed the street and we're gonna come down the Hyman Street Mall here once again a month from now this place is gonna be going gangbusters but here you have all kinds of high-end retail here in Aspen and these streams will be flowing here with water shortly going into summer and then directly across the street to the right you're gonna have Public House which is a great restaurant. That's at the base of the Wheeler Opera House here.
Unravel Coffee
If you want a good cup of coffee right around the corner here on the left it's gonna be Unravel and I put together the seven best coffee shops in Aspen and we've got that there here on the list. So once again Wheeler Opera House more of the town still got a bit of snow up there okay we're back on track and here you are again at the Wheeler Opera House and as I mentioned earlier the highest price condo for sale right now in Aspen is $60 million.
$60 Million Condo
314 E Hyman Ave
That's not a typo at $60 million and it's at 314 East Hyman and that's going to be across the street here and what you get for that it's gonna be six bedrooms, ten bathrooms and over 8700 square feet of living area. On top of that, you've got over 2,500 square feet of an outdoor deck area or as we like to call on Hawaii a lanai. That's a huge bonus and you can imagine with the views up top here what you're gonna see you've got unravel across street as I mentioned and the views the mountains so that's basically gonna be the highest priced condo available right now in Aspen.
Prices Only Found in Aspen
The Brand at 205 S Galena
Staying on the topic of high-end condos, we're gonna continue back to Galena Street where there's currently a one-bedroom two-bathroom condo just over 700 square feet that's listed today for $6.9 million so that's gonna be nearing the borderline of $10,000 a square foot it's just like over just over $9,600 a foot which is just wild! That can only be found in places like here in Aspen so I'm gonna take you up to where that building is located and I head back through the outdoor mall here okay here we are at the Brand Apartments. It's #13 that's priced at $6.9 million which is quite wild. Like I said, it's nearly $10,000 a square foot.
Honolulu's Attempt to Rival Aspen Real Estate
Waikiki Shore in Honolulu
The only thing that we could almost to try to rival the price per square foot in Aspen coming from Honolulu is gonna be a building directly on the ocean in Waikiki called Waikiki Shore. It's the only true ocean front condominium building in Waikiki and recently we just saw two deals closed number 500 and number 800 at over $5,000 a foot. That's kind of an anomaly when it comes to Hawaii real estate as far as price per square foot goes. The reason why those condos have gone for so much is because Japanese nationals tend to buy them because they get this tax break they get this accelerated depreciation when they buy in these older buildings that are legal short-term rentals. Waikiki Shore it's gonna be the one product in Honolulu and there's a really good deal in that building I wrote an article on awhile back. That's unit number 418 in the building.
Waikiki Shore #418 in Honolulu
The ocean view is not gonna be as good but that one is priced now under $2,500 a square foot at $2.3 million.
Here we are across the street from KimoSabe here in Aspen it's you know an iconic place if you ever need a good cowboy hat or boots I recommend checking out KimoSabe across the street.
KimoSabe at 217 S Galena St
If you come back here several weeks from now that place is gonna be going crazy with lines out the doors so I hope you enjoyed my tour and walk here in Aspen in the offseason and as I started this off as Aspen real estate down well I think it's down right now in this little sliver of time but give it some time and things are gonna start going crazy again so if you have questions about real estate in Honolulu Hawaii or here in Aspen Colorado, I've got a lot of connections so feel free to reach out and give me a shout at 808-371-3509. Mahalo.