Affordable Housing

Good news for the renter as sales in the Vail Valley slow down. Eagle County residents saw the real estate market peak in 2007, and as a result, development and construction of new projects quickly slowed down. This factor was the beginning of a major loss of jobs in the real estate segment of the economy, and as of this year the Valley has lost 6,000 jobs. January through June of that year saw 879 transactions generating sales of $927 million. In January of this year transactions dropped to 407 and sales volume dropped to $401 million representing a 43% drop. On the other hand, sales for the first six months of this year are almost double the total in 2009, which was the low point. In addition to the loss of jobs and because of that fact, there have been a host of foreclosures in the Valley as well - 618 in 2010 and an equal number already this year.

The Vail Daily Staff Report on September 2 quoted the Land Title Monthly Housing Report which showed there were 92 completed real estate transactions in July. This number was far above the 75 transactions a year previously. For most of this year, we have seen other monthly increases over 2009. The fact remains that 2009 was probably the largest declining market I have seen in all my years selling real estate here in Vail(20 years). From the perspective of the Gateway Land office, there is no question that we have seen a lot more activity this year than last. However, there are several reasons for this activity.
First, because prices finally dropped when the market went south means that a lot of savy real estate investors have swooped in to buy up distressed properties at bargain prices. Secondly, many of the 'low end' deals were driven by tax incentives that are no longer in effect today. This fact is backed up by the fact that 75% of the transactions were below $1 million.