Dana Harris - Jackson Hole Real Estate

The Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR) opened as plannned yesterday although the opening was limited. JHMR snow making crews worked hard to ensure the Werner run on Apre Vous mountain and the Teewinot run were accesible to the willing enthusists who showed up. I took my son up and we used it as an opportunity to test out our gear and get the legs ready for what we hope will be another great year for snow here in Jackson Hole. I stopped by the resort this morning and snapped this picture of the new tram building and what appeared to be an attempt by mother nature to bring us some powder.

In a story in today's Jackson Hole Daily it was reported that the Puzzleface Ranch's sellers have reduced their asking price by 30%. The 225 acre ranch is located between Jackson and Wilson on Highway 22 and has been on the market since the fall of 2006. The original asking price was $25M but slowing market conditions have caused prices to adjust back down as less buyers enter the market. This is in-line with price reductions we've seen on residential properties as well as buyers and sellers grapple with what "market price" will start to settle at. For seller's who need or want to sell they are dropping their price by 20-30% off of last years highs. We expect to see this continue until we see a stabilization in the housing market through a real government stimulus. Having said that timing market bottoms is extremely tough and for buyers prices are really becoming attractive. In addition local banks have money to lend at good interest rates so it really is a buyers market at this point. We are counseling buyers to make offers on properties where prices have been reduced even if the offer is lower than the reduced price. Without an offer we can't begin a dialog or negotiate a price that is acceptable to both the buyer and seller.

The Living In Jackson Hole website is now an advertising sponsor with Leapfish. Leapfish is the first multi-dimensional information aggregator and search portal in the world. You can search the 3 major search engines with the click of a button and get results fast. Leapfish is not a search engine, it uses the search engines to find the information then presents it to the user in an easy to read format. The results are not a list like you get when using the search engines by themselves witht he different forms of information clustered together. Leapfish organizes the data by type (i.e. search results, images, videos, blogs) so the user can easily find what they are looking for. The default search engine is Google but with the click of a button you can also get the results using Yahoo and MSN. Leapfish launched the beta version earlier this month and it is quickly becoming accepted across the web. You can even add the leapfish toolbar to your browser just like you do with Google. Give it a try!

We are pleased to announce another great addition to the Living In Jackson Hole Team. Chip Marvin, an Associate Broker with Real Estate of Jackson Hole, has decided to join the team. Chip brings a valuable skill set to the team with his innovative approach to marketing and client management.

Chips Short Bio

An Ohio native and Middlebury College graduate, Chip is a 17 year Jackson Hole resident with a background in publishing, marketing, project management and 6 years experience in the real estate industry. People choose to work with Chip because he listens intently to their needs, works hard on their behalf, and gives his all to easing the stress of purchasing or selling a home. A founder of the Farmers’ Market on the Town Square, avid skier, whitewater kayaker, and mountain biker with two young children, Chip is well positioned to help you embrace all aspects of the Jackson Hole lifestyle.

To contact Chip please visit our website at http://www.livinginjacksonhole.com

About Living In Jackson Hole

Living In Jackson Hole (LIJH) was originally developed in 2007 by its founder, Dana Harris. LIJH is the real estate site for the team who are licensed sales Associate’s and Associate Brokers with the brokerage Real Estate of Jackson Hole. The site was created to give buyers and sellers in the Jackson Hole real estate market better access to tools and information to aid them in the purchase or sale of their property. They will continue to roll out new features and technology into 2009.

I attended a seminar at a local bank yesterday and got some clarification on a loan program that may be a big help to some buyers. The FHA has a Rural Areas loan program (Jackson Hole qualifies for this) that allows buyers, who are owner occupants, to borrow money at reasonable rates with low down payments. As a buyer you must have good credit and you'll need to qualify but you can borrow up to 97% of the homes value. That's an unbelievable 3% down! Here's something even more interesting, if you don't have the 3% down they'll allow a family member to gift it to you. There are maxes on what you can earn and there is a limit of about $693,000 you can borrow (set to lower at the first of the year) but it is a great option for a buyer looking to get into the market now while prices are lower. At the time of this writing there were 70 condos and town homes listed for sale in Jackson alone with 15 of those being at or below $400,000.