The Hartwell Letter
The Hartwell Group
Aspen, Colorado
Vol. IV · No. 6 · June 2026
From the desk
Congratulations to Three New Aspen Owners
June settled in slowly this year. The spring rush of buyers waiting on a rate cut has thinned, and what is left is a steadier kind of demand: people who have decided the valley is worth it regardless of where the ten-year sits.
Two of our listings went under contract this month without ever reaching the open market. Both buyers had seen the homes here first. That is the whole idea of this letter.
Featured listings
3 this month$8,950,000
411 Red Mountain Road
5 bd · 6 ba · 7,240 sq ft
Glass and timber contemporary on a south-facing acre, with unobstructed sightlines to Aspen Mountain and a primary wing that opens to the ridge.
View listing→
$6,250,000
88 Willoughby Way
4 bd · 5 ba · 5,110 sq ft
A West End classic two blocks from the gondola. Tastefully updated, original bones intact. Previewing to this list before it hits the MLS.
View listing→
Open house
Saturday, June 21
1:00 – 4:00 PM
$4,400,000
1240 Snowmass Creek Road
4 bd · 4 ba · 4,020 sq ft
Creekside retreat on three wooded acres, ten minutes to the village. The kind of light that makes people stop talking when they walk in.
View listing→
Live market updates
Median sale
$0.00M
▲ +3.1%
Price / sq ft
$0
▲ +1.8%
Days on market
0
▼ -6
Active inventory
0
▲ +11
Nationally, the 30-year fixed eased to 6.42% this week, a small tailwind for buyers still doing the math.
Local pulse
Aspen's Rental Cap Is Already Reshaping Resale
The city's new short-term-rental ordinance took effect this month. It freezes the number of vacation permits and, for the first time, ties each one to the property rather than the owner.
The early read from our desk: homes that already hold a permit are trading at a premium, because the permit now conveys with the sale. We walked two buyers through exactly that calculation last week, and in both cases it moved the number more than the kitchen did.
Top of mind
The Largest Carbon-Capture Plant Just Switched On
A plant in Wyoming began operating this spring with the capacity to remove roughly 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year, storing it as rock nearly a mile underground.
The engineering is impressive, but the economics are the story. The plant sold out its first decade of capacity to airlines before it broke ground, a sign that the market for permanent carbon removal is arriving faster than most forecasts assumed.
Around the valley
The Pearl Pass forest service road reopens for the season the third week of June, which historically pulls a wave of Snowmass buyers back into showings.
Two new restaurants signed leases on the downtown core this month. Walkability keeps doing steady work on West End values.
With you in the valley,
The Hartwell Group
Private-client real estate in the Roaring Fork Valley
hartwellgroup.example · 970.555.0180
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