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Hotsheet Highlights: March in like a lion with 6 SOLD, 6 new PENDING, 6 NEW listings between $539K and $689K, PRICE reductions galore

March 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The first week of March saw a tremendous amount of activity in the Teton County Multiple Listing Service. Where to begin?

After a final weekend of February that saw a small flurry of 3 strong property sales, there have been six sales since Monday for a total sales volume of $7.8 million. Six additional properties went under contract with list prices totaling $14.228 million.

New listings, which have been steadily declining in recent months, also saw a spike with 12 new Teton County single-family homes. Six of them fell within a somewhat narrow range between $539,000 and $689,000, with three of those in Rafter J.

There were also 12 price reductions on properties across the market from a 2-bed Meadowbrook unit with a loft reduced to $268,000 to a $500,000 price reduction on a South Park horse property now listed at $5.475 million.

Top sales included:

  • The Davies-Reid building on Town Square (formerly Jackson Drug) finally closed after months of foreclosure/bankruptcy/litigation drama for $4.5 million.
  • A 3-bed, 2-bath, 1,556-square-foot home in Rafter J on .22 acres originally built in 1989 closed at $550,000. This is a rarity in recent months in that it sold for its original listing price in less than six weeks.
  • A 1-bed, 2-bath, 771-square-foot Teton Mountain Lodge condo closed at $500,000 after 565 days on the market, originally listed at $925,000. That’s $648 per square foot, for those keeping score of Teton Village condo values (and I know you are out there!).
  • A 3-bed, 3-bath, 2,286-square-foot Hillside Townhouse, located just above Snow King Avenue overlooking Karns Meadow, closed at $630,000. Originally listed at $895,000, sold after 317 days on market.

Just as fascinating are the week’s many PENDING sales, NEW LISTINGS and PRICE REDUCTIONS, but I don’t have time to outline those. However, I am happy to discuss the context of those listings included in the link above.

In short, the market is demonstrating an activity level not seen in nearly two years. Many forces are at play, but it appears to be as simple as the fact that prices have fallen considerably and buyer confidence has risen to a point of intersection. Or more verbosely, what now appears to be a critical mass of sellers have made the move to current values while more and more buyers are deciding to pull the trigger.

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Town Square foreclosure cancelled; national delinquency rates on rise

January 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
According to Fannie Mae, serious delinquency rates for mortgages on single-family homes will continue to rise in 2010.

According to Fannie Mae, serious delinquency rates for mortgages on single-family homes will continue to rise in 2010.

Thanks to our friends at Jackson Hole Title & Escrow, who have been providing convenient and consistent updates on Teton County foreclosures, word came last night that the foreclosure set for today on an iconic Town Square property has been canceled due to bankruptcy.

For the back story on the Davies-Reid building (formerly Jackson Drug), see this recent Teton Realty Today post and the included links.

While short sales and foreclosures are not the most pleasant of real estate topics, the reality is a significant portion of the transactions in Teton County in recent months have seen sales prices that were not high enough to extinguish the debt on the property. How many? Hard to say as it would be very difficult at best to track which sellers negotiated lower payoffs with their lenders or brought additional money to closings. But I am seeing it on a daily basis in my business and those of my fellow Realtors. And, despite a stabilizing economy and an end to the freefall of home prices over the past 18 months, there is little reason to believe short sales and foreclosures will become a thing of the past in Teton County anytime soon.

An economist friend sent along the graph at the top of this post, a link to an excellent overview of the housing crisis, and the following data this morning:

The problem:
• 2007 foreclosures, 1.3M
• 2008 foreclosures, 2.3M
• 2009 foreclosures, 2.8M
• Dec/Dec, +15%  (D = 4.2M annualized rate)
• One-third of existing home sales are foreclosures

His conclusion: The overhang of foreclosures is going to get considerably worse.

My conclusion? Contact me for a candid conversation focused on the Jackson Hole real estate market.

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Town Square foreclosure indicative of overall market

December 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The lead story in this Wednesday’s Jackson Hole News&Guide outlines the details surrounding one of Teton County’s highest profile potential foreclosures – the Davies-Reid building on the northwest corner of Town Square.

Today’s Jackson Hole Daily follows up with news that the foreclosure, set for Dec. 29 with an opening bid of $2.76 million, has been postponed until no later than Jan. 31, 2010, in response to an injunction filed by the owners.

Read the stories for the details of the challenges facing the sellers of this particular property, and for why this property is of such significance. Beyond this story, however, this is an excellent example of what is happening throughout the Jackson Hole real estate market.

Not surprisingly, these owners bought the property in 2005, near the height of the housing bubble.  Today, with values returning to levels last seen in 2005, people who purchased property since then are likely to have difficulty selling at a price high enough to wipe out the debt on the property. This is resulting in a very high number of the sales in the past few months being short sales (often coming as a surprise to both lender and seller). Not to mention the growing number of property sales by banks that have already foreclosed.

In short, this is an aspect of real estate sales that was virtually unheard of in Teton County just two years ago, but is clearly here to stay for the foreseeable future. Personally, I worked on four deals in 2009 that were short sales and took a continuing education course on the subject. From experience I can tell you that, conceptually, it is all pretty easy to understand, but on the ground it is extremely difficult to communicate effectively and in a timely manner with all involved. And to be blunt, most if not all of the blame can be placed on the banks.

Check out the Teton County Sheriff’s Office Web site for an explanation of the foreclosure process in Wyoming and for a list of upcoming auctions. Let me know if I can answer any questions about the process or any of the properties on the list.

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