Inman

Aspen’s most expensive home of the year sells for $31.85M

Coldwell Banker Mason Morse Real Estate

An Aspen, Colorado, estate that sold for $31.85 million is the most expensive sale the ski town has seen this year.

Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, the Aspen real estate market blew up as buyers started looking for a place to wait out the pandemic. Aspen quickly became the destination of choice among the affluent due to its resort feel and proximity to nature.

Carrie Wells of Coldwell Banker Mason Morse Real Estate was the agent who sold the superlative property — a 10,014-square-foot house designed by a team of architects from Ro Rockett Design. The home sits atop Aspen’s Red Mountain and boasts seven bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. A steel structure comes together in a stacked, modern look while floor-to-ceiling windows overlook slopes like Independence Pass and Mount Sopris.

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“It’s really stunning contemporary architecture,” Wells told Inman. “One thing that really distinguishes the house is the massive amount of steel framing that allows it to have these big open voids from the interior to the outside with walls of glass that are pocketed into the house.”

Finished this year after four years of design and construction, the property was built as a spec mansion by a developer specializing in the area. A buyer, who remains anonymous, offered the $31.85 million not long after it appeared on the market. Upkeep is on par with the home and Aspen’s high-end nature — taxes alone add up to $66,326 a year — as is its vastness in a ski town notorious for sky-high real estate prices.

“The theme has been people wanting larger spaces, whether that means just a larger condominium or a larger home, or maybe something with some land around them,” Wells said.

Wells’ sale broke records for the year, but not for all time. Back in 2009, a 21,477-square-foot estate sold for $41 million in Aspen. Earlier this summer, another one of Wells’ listings — a mountain estate of more than 15,000 square feet — hit the market for $49 million. A $30 million estate has also been on the market since March.

Email Veronika Bondarenko