Has Steamboats real estate market recovered yet?

Well it’s been awhile, how about those holidays! The world has not ended and the real estate market continues its slow national recovery along with the general economy. Denver is doing pretty good with 8 months of year over year price increases. By April or May the front-range should be looking like a normal real estate market. Steamboat’s economy however is a little slower than the mass population. Although activity has picked up the last few month’s homes in Steamboat Springs still have a four year inventory. Condominiums in Steamboat are at a three year inventory. Activity on over $1.5 million dollar houses has picked up a lot, 6.4% of the active properties  are pending which is 4 properties out of  60; not good but better than the zero it’s been averaging the past half year.  Land in Steamboat has an 18 year supply available. Normal month’s supply of land is a year. It’s going to be awhile before Land and commercial have recovered.

On to the bigger question, how is the Steamboat recovery doing? I forecasted that from November of 2009 through the summer of 2010 our market would have a 10% drop in property values. See the 14 page report:

Ski TownSki Town Realty Report

Given how slowly we are selling of our inventory, it’s starting to look like it could take longer than summer of 2010. My buddy Ryan in the building business was right – I think I owe him a beer. I’ll be doing another semi-annual forecast by June and I would guess that we are looking at 10-15% drop in prices for all property types between now and holidays 2010 or spring 2011. This really stinks, it appears that Steamboat is going to overcorrect and the values will fall below there intrinsic value compared to the national real estate values and other ski resorts. Location Location – it appears that old town steamboats prices have not fallen as much as the general market.

The silver lining of this market is that if you buy by the end of this year the market could appreciate faster than other resorts or the nation. We’ll see how far we fall before making this determination. Here is a great buyer’s guide for vacation homes:

http://www.frontdoor.com/Buy/Experienced-Home-Buyers--Home-buying-guide-for-second-homes-and-vacation-homes--Buy-a-Home--HGTV-FrontDoor-Real-Estate/2390

Check out my seven month old babe!