Eagle County Home Sales Rebounded in 2010

EAGLE COUNTY, Colorado — With final numbers for the year in hand, 2010 looks like a good news/bad news year for local real estate, with upper and lower valleys in very different markets these days
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First, the good news:

• Transactions were up by one-third over 2009.
• Total sales volume increased by two-thirds over 2009.
• Whether or not prices have hit bottom, buyers are coming back, if not in droves.
• Young people are finding it easier to afford a first home.

Now the bad news:

• Foreclosures hit a new record in 2010.
• A lot of property has sold at deep discounts from boom-years highs.
• A lot of residents owe much more than their homes are worth.

The 2010 real estate market also showed a real split between resort areas and downvalley communities.

The Vail Board of Realtors heard from most of the valley's mayors at a Monday morning meeting. Matt Blake, a broker with the valley's Re/Max agency and a member of the Vail Board of Realtors board of directors, said the mayors brought very different messages to the meeting.

“(Vail Mayor) Dick Cleveland was almost bullish,” Blake said. “He really believed Vail has turned a corner. But (Eagle Mayor) Ed Woodland was singing a different song.”

The numbers from last year tell that story well. Gypsum led the valley in new foreclosure filings, with Eagle not far behind. Between them, the two towns accounted for nearly half of all new foreclosure filings in 2010.

“We have been hit harder,” broker Laurie Slaughter of Prudential Colorado Properties said. The reason has a lot to do with where people in the construction business live — Eagle and Gypsum.

And, Slaughter said, there could be more of those filings to come this year.

Optimism in industry
Valleywide, though, 2010 was a significantly better year for real estate, although the market has done an almost-complete switch from the raging sellers' market of 2007 to a cautious buyers' market today.

But people in the real estate market remain optimistic. Even as sales have dropped from their 2005-2007 highs, Vail Board of Realtors membership has dropped just 5 percent from its peak. And those in the business still like to talk about opportunity for people who buy now.

“We're through (the worst) and moving forward,” Vail Board of Realtors board chairman Doug Landin said.

Landin, a broker in Slifer Smith & Frampton's Lionshead office, said he's seeing fewer price reductions in that area, and more interest from buyers.

“Everybody's showing property right now,” Landin said.

Landin said he's also encouraged by the number of single-family homes starting to move through the market.

Those sales have gone from fewer than 50 in 2009, to more than 60 in 2010, Landin said. Right now, the valley's Multiple Listing Service shows 54 single-family homes under contract.

“It's all positive right now,” Landin said. “The stock market's up to about 12,000. For vacation buyers, that's a big barometer.”

New opportunities
Blake said sellers seem to have adjusted to the market's new, lower prices. That's significant, since brokers often complained about sellers' attachment to boom-years prices during the depths of the real estate bust.

But what about those who need to sell, but owe much more than their homes are now worth?

Slaughter said she knows of many people who are just walking away from their houses, choosing bankruptcy or negotiating “short sales” with lenders to get out from under their mortgages.

Slaughter and other downvalley brokers are doing plenty of bank-owned or short sales these days. But, like her counterparts up valley, she remains determinedly optimistic about the local real estate market.

A few years ago, Slaughter was interviewed for story about why young adults returning to the valley were having a hard time buying their first homes. Today, many of the short sales she and her colleagues are brokering deals on are ending up in the hands of younger adults.

“A lot of people still want the American Dream,” Slaughter said.

By the numbers
33 — percent increase in transactions in 2010 from 2009
60 — sales of $4 million or more pushed the average per-sale price to nearly $1.2 million.
54 — Single-family homes in the valley are under contract right now.
$321 — average price per square foot for single-mail homes sold in 2010.
248 — homes were foreclosed and are now owned by lenders.