Summit County real estate sales top $61.7 million in January

Like a towering point guard, Summit County real estate is on the rebound.

Before the year began, local and national brokers predicted that real estate markets across the U.S. were in for a major turnaround, just as ESPN commentators use stats and gut feelings to predict who will win the Super Bowl (remember when it was the Broncos?), or parse out what’s going through Kobe Bryant’s sidelined head.

Optimistic real estate brokers already look like geniuses, at least in the first month of 2015. ESPN, not so much.

“We’re off to a strong start,” says Joan Moats, a broker with the Slifer Smith and Frampton office at 117 Main St. in Breckenridge. “I always like to go back to, ‘When we were strong…’ when I talk about transactions, and we’re almost there, back to the 2008 levels.”