Edwards has been growing so fast that the county had to widen the main access road from the interstate from two lanes to four and replace the traffic light on Highway 6 with a roundabout. That busy intersection is a hub of activity, with Edwards Corner (home to an artisan butchery, a scoop shop, a knitting boutique, a pet boutique, a cheesemonger/wine bistro, craft beer and sandwiches, an artisan bakery, and a greengrocer) and the Riverwalk (movie theater, upscale grocery, boutique hotel, a half-dozen restaurants, and a dozen mom-and-pop shops selling everthing from books to housewares, with live/work spaces upstairs). Just east of the town center (and past the valley’s only boiled and baked New York–style artisan bagel shop) is Arrowhead, Beaver Creek’s westernmost ski village, with a golf course under a blanket of snow and a condo development clustered around a ski yard and a single lift (the Arrowbahn) serving beginner and intermediate terrain, 13 trails spanning 180 acres, with a vertical drop of 1,700 feet. In the morning before the Arrowbahn starts spinning, locals with spikes on their running shoes or skins on their skis power up Cresta to the summit, halos of headlamps bobbing in the dark past outsize ski-in/ski-out homes that are very much in demand.

“We’ve seen a lot of activity, buyers making a lifestyle change since they can do their jobs anywhere; why not in the mountains?” says Slifer, Smith & Frampton broker Matt Iverson.

Number of active listings on the market, at press time: 22

Median home price of active listings: $3.12M

Number of homes sold in 2020: 133

Median price of homes sold: $1.17M

Average number of days on the market: 145