Rental Market gets easier as sales slow down

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 end result of this recession is that we have a Buyers' market like we have never seen in my 21 years in Vail. Just as there are short sale traders in the stock market, we have the same mentality in real estate. As prices drop we see more and more Buyers ready to step up and purchase the foreclosed and short sale homes. For anyone looking to rent or buy right now the opportunities are enormous.