Eagle County 3rd Quarter Statistics

Eagle County: Median Residential Price up 6.49% from LY Q3 numbers Multi-family Average Price PSF up 3.65% from LY Q3 numbers Average Residential Price up 4.56% from LY Q3 numbers Average Residential Price PSF up 13.99% from LY Q3 numbers Buyer Profile: 53.87% local, 14.06% front range, 29.78% Out-of-State, 2.29% international  Gross Sales Volume up over 20% in Eagle, Garfield and San Miguel Counties from prior year

November Calendar of Events

• 2nd                 Nora Jones
• 7th                  Breckenridge Opening Day
• 9th                  Storm Large & Le Bonheur
• 21st                 Vail Opening Day
• 26th                Beaver Creek Opening Day
• 27th                Thanksgiving
• 28th                Beaver Creek Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony

Is Vail Valley’s home market ready for a bounce?

From the Vail Daily:

EAGLE COUNTY — The local real estate market continues to strengthen from the depths of the local and national economic slump, but that recovery can be slow at times.

Looking at the most recent numbers from Land Title Guarantee Co., which tracks completed sales recorded with Eagle County, August was a good example of a decent month. Compared to August of 2013, there were slightly fewer sales for the same period this year, but those sales generated a bit more revenue.

AUGUST PART OF TREND

August’s numbers reflect the trend seen so far this year. Through the first eight months of the year, overall unit sales are down 6 percent from 2013, while sales volume has increased by 28 percent. Those numbers reflect a couple of trends at work. First, prices seem to be firming up and increasing somewhat. Second, fewer units selling for more money also indicates a relative lack of inventory, especially for units priced at $400,000 or less.

LOCATION VS. SIZE

Laurie Slaughter for a number of years has managed the Gypsum office of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Colorado Properties. Slaughter said that the market is still a bit soft for homes priced at $400,000 or more. That could be due to the fact that homes at that price begin to compete with condos, townhomes and duplexes in the middle of the valley. Those buyers may be choosing the convenience of location over the extra space available in the western valley. On the other hand, Slaughter said she’s seeing couples move into bigger homes in the lower valley once they start having kids or having more kids.

FEWER HOMES ON MARKET

First-time buyers, though, tend to find better prices in Eagle and Gypsum. At the moment, though, there just isn’t much on the market. The foreclosure wave that hit the county between about 2009 and 2012 has crested, so there are fewer homes on the market. The homes that are for sale are generally more expensive than they were a couple of years ago. While there’s a good bit of pent-up demand, Slaughter said not much is being built right now. Some concerted building would probably stabilize prices somewhat, she said. And prices are driving virtually all of the market these days, from first-time townhomes to slopeside mansions.

THIS IS THE YEAR

Jim Flaum is a partner and managing broker at Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate, the valley’s biggest brokerage. Flaum said at the beginning of this year that 2014 would be the year that prices started to inch up after about six years of declining or flat numbers. Given the Land Title numbers, that seems to be happening. Flaum said buyers today are still focused in large part on price. “In the old days (say, 2006), it was more about the property,” Flaum said. The very high end of the market — from about $2.5 million on up — remains an up-and-down proposition. Those few sales make up a substantial part of the dollar volume every month. In August, there were six sales for $2.5 million or more. Just two of those sales — the two averaged right at $8 million each — accounted for a full 15 percent of the month’s dollar volume. Flaum said most high-dollar sales come during ski season. But, he said, after a “so-so” July and a similar August, several of those high-end sales will wind up in the county’s records in the next couple of months. “We wrote some pretty nice deals in September — for about $18 million on Rockledge Road (in Vail),” Flaum said. “It’ll be interesting to see the numbers when they come out.”

October Calendar of Events

9/26-10/5               Vail/Beaver Creek Restaurant week
10/4-10/5               Vail Valley Cup Soccer tournament
10/5                        Vail Farmer's Market
10/5                        Underground Sound featuring: Cirque Mechanics: Pedal Punk
10/12                      Underground Sound featuring: The Hot Sardines
10/19                      Underground Sound featuring: Honey Honey
10/26                      Underground Sound featuring: Suzanne Vega
10/31                      Halloween
10/31                      Opening Day at Keystone

Real estate recovery continues in the Vail Valley

From the Vail Daily:

Pre-sold real estate is returning to the Vail Valley, albeit in a small way.

As the local real estate market continues its recovery from its 2009 collapse, 2014 is looking like the best year since the boom times in terms of both transactions and the money generated by those sales.

The most recent data from Land Title Guarantee Co., which uses county records of closed transactions, shows a continued return to health in the local real estate market. Bank sales, which peaked at more than 20 percent of all real estate transactions a few years ago, now account for about 5.1 percent of all sales through July 31. Sales volume, the amount of money generated by those transactions, is more than 30 percent more than 2013’s totals through the end of July. The number of sales through the first seven months of the year is off slightly from the 2013 pace, due largely to a bit of a drop in transactions in July.

Unexpected Dip

Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate Vice President Julie Bergsten said the July dip was unexpected. There’s usually a bit of bounce in sales in July she said, and that bounce didn’t materialize this year. On the other hand, Bergsten said sales in August — transactions either under contract or which haven’t yet shown up on county records — rebounded a bit from July, and are at the same levels seen in the same period in 2013. Those sales were aided a bit by pre-sales at Brookside Lofts in Avon. Work hasn’t yet started to convert former office space to residential space in the building along U.S. Highway 6, but Bergsten said eight of the 16 units are already under contract. Those units, which start at about $600,000, are an example of movement in the market for units priced less than $1 million. And activity in the market depends in large part on the neighborhood.

Lack of Inventory

While Vail’s market remains strong, nearly half of all July’s sales were in non-resort areas of the county. And, Bergsten said, the market remains sluggish for single-family homes in Beaver Creek. Conversely, a less-expensive unit such as a condo will probably move quickly, in part because there aren’t many of those units available. The lack of inventory is also being felt in Gypsum. There, units priced at $400,000 or less tend to go quickly — depending on the neighborhood and the unit, of course — primarily because there are so few homes available.

Laurie Slaughter, of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Colorado Properties’ Gypsum office, has long sold real estate in that part of the valley. She said the lack of inventory in the lower-priced part of the market is due in part to the fact that the flood of foreclosures and short sales seen a couple of years ago has slowed to a trickle. That leaves fewer units available, although Slaughter said some sellers are trying to venture back into the market. Some of those sellers are testing the market, setting prices that might be a bit higher than buyers are willing to pay.

Trading Space for Convenience

While the lower end of the market sees the few available units sell quickly — for the most part — Slaughter said the Cotton Ranch neighborhood around the Gypsum Creek Golf Course is selling more slowly. Given the options at about the same price closer to the resorts, Slaughter said it’s possible some buyers are trading space for convenience.

Both Bergsten and Slaughter said given the lack of units in more-active parts of the valley, it could be time for developers to start building more homes. Slaughter said the Stratton Flats property along U.S. Highway 6 is a “missed opportunity” for builders right now. “It would have been nice to have homes there for sale,” she said. While the local market has some dips and rises at the moment, Bergsten said that’s a good sign of a healthy, normal real estate market. “This is the kind of market we saw before 2005,” Bergsten said. “Normal markets go up and down from time to time.”

August Calendar of Events

• 2nd              Beaver Creek Art Festival
• 3rd              Vail Farmers Market
• 5th               Vail International Dance for $20.14
• 7th               Beaver Creek Rodeo
• 8th-10th      Beaver Creek Wine & Spirits Festival
• 10th             Vail Farmers Market
• 12th             Hot Summer Nights featuring Lukas Nelson
• 14th             Beaver Creek Rodeo
• 15th             Vail Rocks!
• 17th             Vail Farmers Market
• 19th             Hot Summer Nights featuring Kyle Hollingsworth Band
• 23rd            US Pro Cycling Challenge
• 24th            Vail Farmers Market
• 26th            Hot Summer Nights featuring John Brown's Body
• 28th-31st    Vail Jazz Labor Day Festival
• 29th-31st    Gourmet on Gore
• 29th-31st    Beaver Creek Octoberfest

Just listed in EagleVail!

1282 Deer Blvd #B

$640,000

Privacy and views of Game Creek are just two of the wonderful attributes of this home in EagleVail. Backing up to the national forest this 3 bedroom duplex offers hard wood floors, stone fireplace, remodeled baths, new appliances, new carpet, and a 2 car garage.