April News

This is always a sad time of year for me - the mountain closed on Sunday. If you asked my wife, my kids and my friends they would tell you I could ski year round. I mean it, even if it snowed everyday in July, I would be happy. I love to ski that much. In fact in 1995 my wife and I taught skiing in New Zealand during our summer. Combining the Vail ski season of '94-'95, the season in New Zealand and the following season of "95-'96 back in Vail, I skied something like 265 days. You would think I would have burned out after all those days in ski boots, but I couldn't get enough. Just the other day I asked my wife and kids if they wanted to do part of our summer break in Chile or Argentina. They said yes! (Not sure if the kids realize it's winter down there in August).

There's no real point to why I am telling you this, other than I just need to vent about the mountain closing!

So what's happening in the Vail Valley real estate market? Well I just put a Solaris residence under contract. It's listed at $7.3M and closes in about a year. This transaction illustrates what I have been telling people for months now: the market is in a flip-flop. In a high-priced market like this one, the locals are usually the ones buying in the low to mid-range of prices: somewhere between $300,000 and $800,000. Although second home sales make the stats look good, it is primary housing that is the bread and butter of this market.

The flip-flop: in today's market, the locals have all but ceased shopping for real estate and most of the transactions are instead occurring in the second home market. That's not to say second homes are selling like hot cakes, or that locals are not buying at all. But the majority of overall transactions are in the luxury home segment of our market.

Of course, now that prices have come down noticeably in the primary residential market, locals are starting to pay attention. And with interest rates for a 30 year fixed loan hovering in the 4% - 5% range, conditions are such that full-time residents won't be able to resist opportunity too much longer. So the local market should return to normal, but the question is when..

Please click here to hear my radio interview on KZYR a few weeks ago.

Oh and one other thing - I've lived here 17 years and not once experienced "Mud Season". Although it snows on occasion here in the spring, I can recall numerous warm and sunny days as well. I hope you'll take time to visit Vail at one of the best times of the year - you can walk into the finest restaurants without a reservation AND get 50% off, and you can park anywhere you want...for FREE!