Some have noted a slight pause in the housing recovery this year. The American Dream of homeownership is alive and well, but it must still contend with market fluctuations. Buyers need homes for sale if they’re expected to buy said homes. They also need reliable financing, better jobs and stronger wage growth. The opportunities are out there. Now we need people to take advantage of them. New Listings were up 12.5 percent for single family/duplex homes and 24.7 percent for townhouse-condo properties. Pending Sales increased 30.0 percent for single family/duplex homes but decreased 28.8 percent for townhouse-condo properties. The Median Sales Price was up 1.4 percent to $585,000 for single family/duplex homes and 51.5 percent to $500,000 for townhouse-condo properties. Months Supply of Inventory increased 11.7 percent for single family/duplex units but decreased 14.5 percent for townhouse-condo units. We’ve had a mixed bag of economic news lately. As expected, national GDP contracted slightly during Q1-2014, which most economists attribute to impermanent factors like the harsh winter. We’ve now had more than four straight years of monthly private sector job growth. It hasn’t been extraordinary growth, but it sure beats mass layoffs. Buoyed by an improving sales mix, home prices continue their ascent despite erratic demand indicators. More inventory, more high-skilled job growth, and less economic and political uncertainty are still top priorities.
May 7, 2013
The Vail valley real estate market continues to grow in the year 2013 and it is shaping up to be another year filled with new highs over the past years. We continue to see market volatility as the last of the distressed sales are moving off the market. There are still great deals out there but we have seen an increase in sales prices because of a lower inventory valley wide. In the last few years we saw many distressed sales from bank owned and short sales to foreclosures and fire sales from Sellers who had to get out of the market. The Sellers are in a better position now as we have seen a lot of this inventory bought up and now the market is more evenly matched for Buyer and Seller. Although, I still give the Buyer the advantage as there are still distressed properties that come on the market on a monthly if not weekly basis. There are just not as many out there as before. For a further in depth look at the market, please email me for a free market analysis at jonka1@comcast.net. Or feel free to contact me at 970 331 6111.