I know you are always being told that now is a good time to buy, but with interest rates as low as they are, and property values having softened, this truly is a good time to buy your vacation home in Summit County, Colorado!

Interest rates are very low, averaging just under 5% nationwide. If you already own a home in Summit County and your current interest rate is 6% or higher, it might be a good time to refinance. If you need a market analysis on your property to be sure that you still have 20% equity, let me know and I will be happy to email you the sales for similar units for the last year. Unless you bought in the last year, you probably have not lost value, but if you bought early in 2008, it is possible that your values have declined slightly. Not a good thing if you already own a property, but a very good thing if you have been considering buying your second home in the mountains.

What difference does a 1% drop in interest rates make? On a $200,000 mortgage……

Based on offers I have received on some of my listings lately, the magic number for Buyers seems to be around 90% of list price. Sellers disagree of course, thinking that they should get about 98%. In fact, what has happened in December so far, the average is around 94-95%. New construction typically sells for asking price, so when compiling the statistics, I removed all those closings for the month and just looked at resale properties.

The statistics still don’t tell the full story, as many of the sales have already been reduced in price. Our MLS uses the last listed price when computing the selling price percent to list price. Prices are currently holding around 2007 levels in most complexes.

Why are Buyer’s expectations so high? Listening to the national news, you hear a lot of talk about home prices decreasing by 30-40%. It does make one think that perhaps it is a good time to get a bargain on a vacation home or investment property. I had an email yesterday from an agent saying that he had a Buyer ready, willing and able to pay cash for a condo from a very motivated Seller, and if we had a listing that fit the bill to call him. Almost every buyer than contacts us today is expecting…..

Loans are still possible to get, although it is not as easy as it was, and prices are more reasonable than they were last year. Interest rates are at historic lows. We also have more properties on the market from which to choose and many Sellers are a little more flexible on their pricing. This isn’t the usual over optimistic, “glass is half full” story; it is actually true, but only for part of the market. Single family homes and duplexes without homes associations are the easiest types of properties to get loans for. Condos can be difficult to finance as the lenders are much more rigid with their underwriting requirements, and it seems that the number of rental units we have in our resort market can be an issue for some of them. I have been talking to many lenders in the last few days and have found that one must now be very dilligent in selecting a lender to work with. Using someone local is important, especially with a condo or townhome, because each lender has to get the entire condo complex approved and it is not always an easy thing to do. When red flags pop up to the underwriter, a local person is more likely to be able to explain and help the underwriter understand what the real situation is. Sometimes the easiest thing is to get a home equity loan and pay cash, if you are able to do that.

So for a while, perhaps you should consider buying a duplex or single family home. The only issue with them is that they are not …….

If you have a home in Breckenridge that needs art on the walls, or just like to look at art, now would be a good time to check out the Arts Alive Gallery in Breckenridge. It is a co-op gallery of local artists and carries a wonderful array of artwork, from jewelery to fiber art (quilts) to paintings, photography, pottery, clay and sculpture. The gallery also carries a variety of small gift items such as notecards and prints. It is supported by the Summit County Arts Council and has 34 artists who show their artwork and spend one day a month working there. I am one of them, being an oil painter in my spare time. The gallery is in the La Cima Mall, at 500 S Main st, across the street from the Breckenridge Fine Art Gallery.

The current show at Arts Alive is the Small Format show, where smaller original artwork with correspondingly small price tags are available for holiday gifts or souveniers. The show will come down in mid-January, and be replaced with the Winterscapes show, featuring winter themes and landscapes, primarily local. The Arts Council also supports the “Meet the Artists” outdoor art show in the summertime, also held in Breckenridge.

While you are gallery hopping, check out the other……

Vacation homes and second homes have finally gone the way of real estate in other parts of the country. Our market held up much longer than most, but the economic situation now has affected nearly everyone. Few people are buying, and those that do, expect a fantastic deal. Not all Sellers are willing to come off their purchase price as much as the Buyers want them to, and as most second home owners don’t need to sell, it makes for a strange market.

The month of November, 2008 was off by 70% from November 2007. There were a total of 61 residential sales in the entire county last month, not only the worst this year, but the worst I have seen in 15 years. For the eleven months of 2008, total sales are off by 43%. I anticipate that we will end up with less than 1200 residential sales. When you realize that there are more than 650 licensed real estate brokers in Summit County, you know why so many of them working at second jobs.

What has happened to prices? Surprisingly……