Despite our warm spring weather we have been having, today really looks and feels like winter!
Last night a spring storm came thru and dumped about 6 inches of snow on the valley. Today (April 15,2012) will be the last day for the mountains to be open. Both Vail Mountain and Beaver Creek mountain will finish up another wonderful winter. Since it has been dry we are excited for the moisture and before we know it the mountains will be green.

Happy Spring!!!

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Our lifestyle, weather, people and so many activities is why many visit and eventually want to live here part or full time. Even though you love the lifestyle you still need to make the numbers work. Here and in a previous email I sent last week show many numbers for the whole valley and specific numbers for smaller areas. In the short run prices have come down just like everywhere in the country. Will prices eventually go back up --yes -but no one knows when. We are seeing more shoppers this winter hence potentially more buyers which will help to stabilize prices. You do need to look at this home purchase as an investment and long term the Vail valley is not going anywhere.  Vail and Beaver Creek mountains are world class along with the surrounding towns. With the planning of the 2015 world ski championships the mountains will continue to see many upgrades the next few years. We are excited that the championships have been here 3 times in the last 25 years and that is a big deal for the ski world. This all relates to helping our investments of owning a home in the valley. While the dividend for this investment is all the wonderful times you spend with you family and friends--and you can not do that with a stock or CD.

As a past commodity and stock broker with Merrill Lynch I can help you with your home purchase as an investment that you can truly enjoy.

If you would like any more information on the Vail valley please contact me anytime.

Winter is not over --continue to THINK SNOW!!!

February, 21 2012
Scott N. Miller
smiller@vaildaily.com
Vail, CO Colorado

EAGLE COUNTY, Colorado — A local real estate company has taken a fine-toothed comb to the valley's real estate data. The result shows that the valley's high-end property market is pretty strong — in spots.

Fuller BCV Sotheby's International Realty has recently completed a “micro market” report for the Vail Valley. The Denver-based company has long done similar reports for Front Range markets including Denver, Boulder and Castle Rock. This is the first Vail Valley report the company has done since merging last year with Forbes Sotheby's International Realty.

The report — similar to the information Land Title Guarantee Co. provides but easier to read — puts Eagle and Gypsum together, but breaks down the valley's higher-priced areas into more tightly defined areas.

Using that information shows that prices for high-end real estate really do boil down to location, location, location. And, in some cases, age.

For instance, while the average sale price in Beaver Creek dropped by one-third from 2010 to 2011, average prices in Bachelor Gulch rose by nearly half. On the other hand, there were just 25 Bachelor Gulch sales last year, compared to nearly 70 in Beaver Creek.

But Heidi Bintz, a broker with Fuller BCV Sotheby's, said some of the difference also boils down to what's for sale. While Bachelor Gulch, built in the 1990s, has quite a bit of ski in/ski out property, that inventory is limited in Beaver Creek. There's also the matter of the age of the units, and whether or not new owners will want, or need to, remodel. The same is true of older units in Vail Village.

While price changes vary by neighborhood — although most areas are down by double-digit percentages from 2010 — one constant is that units are taking longer — sometimes much longer — to sell.

Again, the average time on the market varies, but it took longer to sell a unit anywhere in the valley last year, and much longer than the boom days of 2007. For instance, a unit in the non-village portion of Vail — the town outside of Vail Village and Lionshead — took an average of 75 days to sell in 2007. Last year, the average unit was on the market for 270 days. A single-family home in Bachelor Gulch was on the market an average of 176 days in 2007. Last year, that number had jumped to 553 days.

Bintz said a big part of those increases is simply the number of people looking.

“There are just less shoppers today than there were at the peak,” she said. Going back to her days in the retail world, Bintz said it always takes a certain number of people walking past a storefront to generate a certain number of sales.

“We've just got to have more people looking,” she said.

By the numbers

366 — Average days on the market in 2011 for Vail Village property, up from 202 in 2010.
27.9 percent — Drop in the average sale price of Vail property — excluding Vail Village and Lionshead — from 2010 to 2011.
49.9 percent — Increase in average sale price in Bachelor Gulch from 2010 to 2011.
25 — Units sold in Bachelor Gulch in 2011.
25.6 percent — Increase in average sale prices in Arrowhead form 2010 to 2011.

More information, please contact Heidi at heidi.bintz@sothebysrealty.com or 970-390-8383 for a detailed micro report.

Heidi Bintz of Fuller BCV Sotheby's International Realty flew into the Vail valley on February 5th and took this picture of Beaver Creek Mountain from the airplane. This is a great view of the mountain and the runs of Arrowhead, Bachelor Gulch and Beaver Creek Resort.

Look at all the snow!

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