Local housing markets pick up
Markets seeing recovery after years of downturn
By Collin McRann
Staff Reporter
A string of stronger housing sales this spring is prompting optimism that a sustained real-estate recovery could be on its way to local markets.
The first five months of this year saw spring real estate sales jump to their highest levels since 2010. Despite the number of units sold being down about 10 percent from this time last year, sale values were up around 3 percent, according to San Miguel County data from Telluride Consulting.
“The simplest reason is we’ve been in this recession now for four to five years, and we have been slowly selling off the inventory,” said real estate broker George R. Harvey. “There’s been very little construction, so the buyers have been picking over the good deals for years now. It’s just a matter of time before those sales start to tip the scales a little bit.”
Currently there are around 67 units on the market in both Telluride and Mountain Village. Harvey said houses have been the strongest sellers, with condos coming in second. The Telluride market has also been the strongest, but other markets could see an increase in sales this year too.
Harvey said the Mountain Village market has been soft, but he thinks the local real estate market bottomed out around two years ago, and a slow recovery has since been in effect.The first five months of this year saw spring real estate sales jump to their highest levels since 2010. Despite the number of units sold being down about 10 percent from this time last year, sale values were up around 3 percent, according to San Miguel County data from Telluride Consulting.
“The simplest reason is we’ve been in this recession now for four to five years, and we have been slowly selling off the inventory,” said real estate broker George R. Harvey. “There’s been very little construction, so the buyers have been picking over the good deals for years now. It’s just a matter of time before those sales start to tip the scales a little bit.”
Currently there are around 67 units on the market in both Telluride and Mountain Village. Harvey said houses have been the strongest sellers, with condos coming in second. The Telluride market has also been the strongest, but other markets could see an increase in sales this year too.
“It’s really hard to put your finger on the pulse of the market,” said T.D. Smith, managing director of Telluride Real Estate Corp. “We are still influenced by global economic circumstances. If there’s bad news, people are less prone to invest in lifestyle and second homes. What we’re seeing right now is less talk of gloom and doom, and in general inquires are picking up.”
Smith said he really started to see an upturn in February, with the best increases over last year during April and May.
Since 2007, the number of springtime real-estate sales hit a low in 2009 with 85 units sold, but the number has been steadily increasing with 174 units sold this year and 193 units sold last year. In 2007, a banner year for the local real estate market, 285 units were sold.
However, sale values have been across the board. So far this year’s sales have totaled $118.8 million, middle of the range compared with 2009’s low of $75.9 million and 2007’s high of $313.2, according to Telluride Consulting.
Some of the stronger numbers in Telluride have been attributed to the sale of distressed properties and foreclosures. Dirk De Pagter, managing broker for Telluride Real Estate Brokers, said some of the uptick in sales can be attributed to distressed properties and foreclosures, but he also said some sellers have been more realistic on their pricing.
“One problem we always have in Telluride is difference between the bid and the ask,” de Pagter said. “The sellers were asking too much and the bidders were not bidding enough. But in the last few weeks you can definitely feel a change in the sentiment. More contracts being thrown around and there’s more dialogue between buyers and sellers.”
Getting a loan to buy a property is also more realistic for qualified buyers than it has been in the past few years. Harvey said banks are being cautious about making bad loans, but qualified buyers can more confidently find a loan now as opposed to three or four years ago.
“I think those buyers who are looking for those screaming deals better do it this year,” Harvey said. “I’m fairly confident in saying that the tide has been and is turning. There’s not a lot of time left for those really screaming deals. They’ll still be good buys, but I think this is the last year of that.”
For more information on the trending Telluride real estate market, please contact us at 970.728.3111, info@telluriderealestatecorp.com, or http://www.telluriderealestatecorp.com/.
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