About Eagle County, CO

15 closings in the last six months in West Vail. Two closings on Shasta Place in the last couple of weeks. A new single family home closed for 2.75 million and a 4 bedroom duplex closed for 1.1 million both on Shasta Place. If you are interested in this neighborhood I have a lot listed on the corner of Shasta and Gore Creek Drive. The lot is .26 acres and is completely flat. It is one of the only remaining flat lots left in the entire Town of Vail.

There are some more great deals throughout West Vail. You can be in your new home before July 4th and the great summer events begin. Give me a call: 970-331-5821.

The Town of Vail, the local business community, and Vail Resorts have teamed up to bring back vailallthelove.com for the summer. Go check out the website: http://vailallthelove.com. You will find incredible lodging, dining, and restaurant specials. If you are thinking about coming to Vail this summer make sure to check out the website.

There is no snow in our current forecast. This is a good thing. The daffodils and tulips are out and the sun is shining. Come on out and visit us this summer. You can also check the calendar of events at vail.com. There is an event every weekend this summer, sometimes two.

The first event of the year is the Teva Mountain Games. They start June 4th.

There is so much to do when the snow melts. Come on and visit us in Vail.

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 www.vailvalleyliving.com 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^TM" 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.

The last few weeks of ski season, or the first couple weeks of April have seen record snow fall at Vail and Beaver creek. The great snow conditions coupled with Easter and Holy week falling so late in the year has somewhat helped Vail to recover some lost revenue. Real estate which follows the visitor trend was way off. See stats on www.VailValleyLiving.com. The last two weeks of March saw lower lift-ticket revenue than usual and less than stellar snow fall.

Both retail shops and rental agencies reported similar experiences seeing some slight decline over the normal numbers for end of March. Guest bookings for the entire 2008-2009 ski season were down around 12.8 percent compared to last year. And while Vail resorts also saw a 6.2% decline in skier visits compared with last year, despite the incredible sales of the popular Epic pass, the shortfall still seems relatively minor compared to what is happening in the rest of the country. Next years Epic pass sales have already started, a small amount of money down is required.

Our Real Estate seems soft in terms of the number of sales and sellers are dropping prices as the season ends. The next 6 weeks are the premium feasting time for Buyers as Sellers who did not sell will want out and after the 1^st of May they will be looking for the summer crowd to help them.