Big news! Today marks the first day of skiing in Colorado for the 2009-2010 winter season, with the opening of Loveland ski area. Other signs that winter is on the way besides snow on the hills, is that landscaping crews are putting up the holiday lights around the valley.

 Vail resorts starts snow making today to prepare for the World Cup skiing event at Birds Of  Prey held Dec 4^th-6^th. We had snow straight through the summer in the high country.

 The elk are out bugling like mad. During early morning walks up Lake Creek, I always hear at least one bull elk bugling and yesterday I caught a bugle battle between two big bulls about 40 yards off in the field. I was transfixed for about half an hour listening to them go at it.

 The Real Estate Market has been tough all summer and now at the end we are starting to see buyers and sellers finally come together. Cordillera has seen the most activity with 8 properties in total. In the area of under contract at over $1 million list and 3 bedrooms or more, Beaver Creek ranks highest with 4 properties.  There are 25 properties under contract totaling $72,316,000 in total list value in the 3 bedroom plus $1million plus. The higher number of sales is currently at lower asking prices and less bedrooms.

 Jan 1 to Oct 1 sales for the resort and high end communities

3 bedroom plus $1million plus

 It’s a Buyer’s market is the feeling we get and you can see by the sale to list ratio that some sellers are getting the message. Now some don’t feel the need to sell and their response to low ball offers is “at that price I will get a better return on my money by holding on to the property”. Not everyone is hurting. Those that were smart enough to avoid some of the pitfalls of last year are thinking the smart thing to do is hold on to their choice real estate.

 Auctions, foreclosure and short sales have been going on all summer. The auctions where there was a reserve bid (would not accept anything lower than x) were a disaster with no bids.  The ones where there was no reserve did get bids but the prices were often not that great a bargain to the buyer. The foreclosures and short sales were mostly in the lower price range properties and mostly in the down valley neighborhoods. We expect to see more of all of these types’ efforts to assist distressed owners.

 It is going to be a great ski year so make your reservations now as many hotels are offering early booking discounts.  This year is not only a buyers’ market for purchasing real estate it is also a great one for renting. Private owners, hotels and property management companies are all willing to negotiate and deal right now as it appears that people seem to be waiting to book their winter travel.  By the way, if you need someone to help you find a great rental at no cost to you, let me know and I can put you in touch with my rental person.

 I have new boots and am getting new skis so that technology can make up for some slowness in the reflexes and to keep me skiing “younger”.   See you on the slopes.  

Vail Valley home tax assessments up 13% on average

Vail Valley property owners received an economic jolt this week. The real estate tax assessment which happens every two years raised the average residence tax value up 13%.

The hardest hit areas in the recent down turn had some major increases.

    Eagle up 25%, Gypsum up 17.5% ,Avon up 14.5% ,Edwards up 10%.

County wise single family homes were valued up 13% and condominiums up 13.5%.

Appeals can be filed in writing or email before May 29^th and the assessor has been inundated with irate calls. Unfortunately the period set by law for evaluations were done on the sales between January 1^st 07 and June 30^th 08 which was right at the top of market here. It is only that small window that is used to assess homes for the next tax period.

This comes at a time when the Vail Real Estate for the first time in decades is seeing property values decrease. It is good to know that we can increase our values by 13% in a year, but, when will we see that again. We are starting to see short sales, foreclosures as well as auctions as a means to get properties sold.  The first major auction in Vail is to be held on July 28^th.

How long do we expect the down turn to last? The adage is Vail is the last to go down and the first to come up. This is due to the make up of the owners here. Check the past stats on Vail Valley Living to see the historical trends in the Valley.

Those at the higher end of the economic spectrum feel the effects of down turns last. They also see the turn around first and capitalize on that. Once comfortable that a turnaround is coming, they began to re-allocate funds to real estate.

We have seen from the continued influx of lookers that there is a pent up demand for Vail Real Estate.

Two things are going to happen:

1. Those that don’t need to wait and see prices at very good values historically will buy.

2. Those who have been waiting and see the first tier properties disappear will not want to miss the chance to get a premier property and will begin buying.

I am not saying there will be a major spike in prices, there just will be a dwindling supply of unique properties and every time a property sells it typically will not come back on the market again for 5 to 7 years. By then it certainly will not be coming back at the last sale price.

There is also the constant shift of retirement and semi-retired people. The west continues to be one of the major areas that people look to for their second home and retirement home.

So the bottom line is now is a great time to position yourself to “Experience the Best of The West™” Get ready to participate in the auctions, track the short sales, watch the foreclosures and be ready to move on a property that uniquely fulfills your  ideal of a home in the mountains.

AUCTION AUCTION AUCTION  EVERY WHERE AN AUCTION

Vail/Lionshead, Beaver Creek, Bachelor Gulch, and Arrowhead

We are seeing a push to create a real estate auction market here in the Vail Valley. So are auctions the answer to getting everyone off the fence? Will it get the market moving? Who comes out the best?

Sellers who send their real estate to auction are finally really sellers. The caveat is that this is true only if the reserve (minimal accepted bid) is at a realistic price when their past listed price was not realistic (did not bring forth any buyers). If it is too high then it will still be unsold real estate since they are in de facto the highest bidder.

Buyers who show up as end users along side the speculators and bid can create the new bar to create sustainable comparables. If just speculators show up, the reserve may never get met. If the speculators do the bidding, have we really learned where the bottom is?

The first auction in Vail will be July 28^th and we will learn pretty quickly who the winners are. The prospective bidders will have $50,000 deposited into a holding company and be able to close in 30 days max, then Katie bar the door.

Can we get real movement? Can we get a new base line from these sales? Only time will tell. 

The market will turn when the banks make loans (ask anyone trying to market or buy or refinance real estate and the reality is the banks do not want to lend, forget what the banks PR teams are putting out). Low rates and low prices only work when people can borrow the money needed to buy the properties and the prices create incentive to buy.