Excellent video of not only the state of luxury real estate in San Francisco.  The interview speaks to the challenge of finding buyers for truly exclusive properties.  With the number of properties in Aspen and other parts of the world increasingly exceeding $30mm the amount of time on market could be extremely long.  The pool of buyers worldwide for this price range is very narrow.  In Aspen’s history we have only seen 4 sales above $30mm and one above $40mm with the sale of Mandalay Ranch in 2004.

Single-family home on Ridge Road sells for $3.4 million, sets mark for Basalt proper

The single-family home at 240 Ridge Road in Basalt broke a record Monday when it sold for $3.4 million. (Courtesy David Marlow)

The Aspen Times
Aspen CO, Colorado
May 17, 2008



BASALT — Times are tough in the local real estate market, but that didn’t prevent the setting of an apparent record for a single-family-home sales price in Basalt this week.

A $3.4 million deal closed May 12 for a house at 240 Ridge Road. The home is in the Basalt Highlands subdivision and sold to the Barbara L. McMahon Living Trust, according to a deed filed with the Eagle County Clerk and Recorder’s office.

The house size is modest, by today’s standards, at 4,184 square feet, three bedrooms and 31⁄2 bathrooms. The interior features 110-year-old reclaimed heart pine floors and a tongue-and-groove ceiling from a mill in North Carolina. The home was sold furnished.

A top selling point was clearly its commanding position at the top of a hillside overlooking Basalt and offering stunning views of Mount Sopris and the valley floor. The house’s location is in Basalt what the top of Red Mountain is in Aspen.

That record sale was confirmed by data tracked by the Aspen-Glenwood Springs Multiple Listing Service (MLS). The previous highest sale price within Basalt’s town boundaries was $3.35 million for a home in the Roaring Fork Club, which sold in January.

Sales of homes in Emma and in the Fryingpan Valley regularly eclipse the $3.4 million mark, but they are outside the town boundaries.

The house was on the market for about one year and was listed at $3.8 million. The home was designed in 2004 by Carbondale architect Doug Muse and he was the only owner prior to this sale. The house isn’t huge, but it uses the site well. It’s not a cabin but it’s rustic enough to match the desires of many people.

This sale shows that the right home, with a great location and finishes, can sell even in a sluggish market. There are qualified buyers out there, and when a house fits their needs and is appropriately priced, they will buy.

Over the years, Basalt has evolved as more of a destination market — rather than one that captures buyers that spill down from Aspen. Much of that evolution occurred since the Roaring Fork Club was developed in 1996 and brought a different kind of buyer to the midvalley market.

The first single-family home sale to top $1 million in Basalt appeared to occur in July 2003 on Riverside Drive, according to MLS statistics. A home there went for almost $1.3 million. Since then there have been roughly 85 sales in Basalt proper that topped that mark.

Article by WSJ

May 2, 2008, 1:50 pm
Wealthy Still Shopping for Vacation Homes

The wealthy think the U.S. is in a recession. But they’re still bullish on real estate, according to a new study.
Last month the Harrison Group, a Connecticut-based marketing and consulting firm, conducted an Internet survey of 638 respondents with incomes of $100,000 or more. The company broke the group of respondents into four categories, ranging from “Upper Middle Class” (incomes of between $100,000 and $149,000, 123 respondents) to “Wealthy” (incomes of $500,000 or more, 119 respondents).
The survey found that more than three-quarters of respondents believed the U.S. was in a recession. The wealthy were the most pessimistic, with 81% agreeing that we’re in recession.
Yet the wealthy were also the most cheery about the real-estate market. Of wealthy respondents, 40% said they plan to buy real estate over the next year. That compares with only 17% for the Upper Middle Class.
The rich who plan to buy homes are mainly looking for leisure properties. One-third plan to buy a vacation home, while about a quarter plan to buy third homes. Only about a quarter plan to buy primary homes.
The most obvious explanation for their bullishness is that the wealthy still have money and aren’t as affected by gas hikes, bread prices or job losses. As we’ve seen, the super high end of the real-estate market (properties that cost $20 million ore more) seems to be holding up the best, although all levels have been affected.
Yet some of the wealthy may be expecting big bargains — and they may be disappointed. Lots of people still have wealth, and they’re willing to pay up for rare properties. That means the bargains they’re waiting for at the high end may not appear.
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The real estate winds are shifting
By Mike Russo
Real estate figures released by Land Title for the first quarter of 2008 in Pitkin County show that we are experiencing a new trend in the Aspen/Snowmass market. Transactions through the first quarter were down 33 percent from last year and sales volume was down 52 percent.
Given that volume has seen a greater decline than transactions, we conclude that current purchases are at a lower aver­age sales price than last year.
The average purchase price in Pitkin County for the first quarter of 2007 was $2.44 million versus $1.73 million for the first quarter of 2008. Compare that to the first quarter of 2006 when the average pur­chase price in Pitkin County was $926,505. Also worth noting is that during the record sales year of 2006, the market experienced five times the amount of closed transactions in the fractional con­dominium market. During the first quarter of 2006, fractional sales accounted for 16 percent of the total volume versus a paltry 3 percent in the first quarter of 2007.
Although sales volume is off, compared to a record first quarter of 2007, it is off to a lesser degree compared to 2005 and 2006. The volume difference is -17 percent and -23 percent, respectively.
The blaze of sales volume that occurred in the first quarter of 2007 represented 30 percent of the sales volume reported for the entire year. Going back to 2003, the average percentage of yearly sales volume has been 19 percent in the first quarter.
Although the year did not finish like a lion, 2007 was still the second best year on record, finishing the year at $2.5 billion, about 4.5 percent less than 2006.
So what does it all mean? The real estate market in our valley is still vibrant and not in the dire straits that some observers suggest. We are still seeing a large number of consumers looking to purchase property in the Aspen/Snowmass market.
The challenge in the marketplace today is the disparity between buyers and sell­ers. With news of the threatening reces­sion, a credit crisis that remains tenuous at best, followed by a national housing crisis and inflationary fears, among other con­cerns, the Aspen valley market continues to hold its ground in pricing.
A recent seller of a home in Wildcat Ridge exemplified the Aspen real estate market when he was quoted nearly two years ago in the Wall Street Journal as say­ing,“ If we don’t get the right price, we won’t sell.”
So how has the wind shifted? Of the 207 consumers that chose to purchase in Pitkin County this year, they decided they still wanted a property in our county, but on average decided to spend less than the buyers of last year.
(Michael S. Russo is president of Aspen Sotheby’s International Realty He can be reached at mike.russo@sothebysrealty.com.)

THE SKY IS FALLING, THE SKY IS FALLING…….This has been the battle cry we have been hearing due to the national housing markets. Everyone is trying to peer into our numbers and say the Aspen/Roaring Fork Valley market is declining. What has been falling is snow. We have had over 100 inches in December which has made for a very strong holiday season.

Pitkin County/Aspen have posted numbers through November of $2.32 billion, which is $60mm short of the sales volume through November of 2006. We are expecting December to come in with about $180 mm in sales which will bring our year to about $2.5 billion and about $130 mm less than 2006 overall.

The newspapers have been talking about the decline in transactions by about 30%. This number counts fractional sales which is a moving target in our market. The sales in Pitkin County for whole ownership are down about 12%. While the numbers would suggest a steep decline in fractional sales, I believe that is another anomaly.

Fractional sales showed record volumes in 2006 based on years of pre-sales with the Hyatt. We have had a number of transactions go under contract for the Residence at Little Nell and the Dancing Bear that will not show in our transaction numbers or sales volume until the projects are complete and the contracts closed. When the contracts of The Residence at Little Nell close they alone will represent over $300 mm in sales volume. The amount of sales from that project alone would represent 11.5% of the sales volume of our best year ever in 2006.

Our market has seen the highest number of $10 mm plus sales in 2007 with 19 transactions. We have also experienced appreciation on a sq. foot basis ranging from 13% in the Central Core of Aspen to 17% in Snowmass Village.

While 2007 represented a 12% decline in whole ownership transactions and a slight decline in sales volume it still represented the second best year in Aspen real estate history. There is a lot of buzz in the Aspen market with a large influx of international money and we are expecting another solid year of price appreciation in our market.

“Video provided by Plum TV”

Mike Russo, president of Aspen Land & Homes/Sotheby’s International Realty, stopped by the MNN set to talk about Aspen’s unique real estate market.

We have a multitude of numbers to discuss in this real estate report. The June numbers from Land Title have just arrived. The reports are consistent with what we have discussed all year.

Through June, Pitkin County has a sales volume of $1.46 billion, representing a 13.8% increase over last year. After the first quarter transactions were down versus the prior year by 40%. The market has seen some increase in transactions, but Pitkin County is still off by 32% versus 2006 through June. It will take until the end of the 3rd quarter to see if the transaction numbers start to even out.

Garfield County is still showing an increase in volume of 30% over the prior year, with an increase in transactions of 15% and a total sales volume of $565 mm. The majority of transactions and sales volume is still supported primarily by Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, and Rifle.

We have developed a comprehensive set of statistical data to help any buyer and seller. For more detailed information please contact one of our brokers or send an e-mail to mike.russo@sothebysrealty.com.

Aspen Land & Homes Sotheby’s International Realty announced its exclusive sponsorship of The Buddy Program’s annual fundraising gala “Boogie’s Bash for the Buddies” to be held July 5. Sponsorship also includes underwriting the upcoming “Be an Artist for an Afternoon” event on May 10. In addition, its brokers will also participate in the Buddy Program Community Partnership.

The Buddy Program Community Partnership pairs big and little buddies throughout the school year. The Aspen Land & Homes brokers will be paired with elementary or middle-school children, and will meet every week for an hour at the children’s schools.

Additionally, Aspen Land & Homes is underwriting the cost of materials to the “Be an Artist for an Afternoon” event, another buddy-pair activity, hosted by artist Elisa Ahmers at The Red Brick Center for the Arts on May 10. Aspen Land & Homes will create souvenir decks of playing cards, using the artwork from the activity for the annual fundraising gala.

For more information about Aspen Land & Homes Sotheby’s International Realty, call (970) 925-1730 or visit www.aspenlandandhomes.com.

IS FRACTIONAL OWNERSHIP FOR YOU?

Fractional Ownership is the fastest growing segment in resort real estate and makes sense for most people. The following are a few key reasons fractional ownership is the fastest growing segment in resort real estate.

• Your investment is balanced with usage.
• It’s hassle-free ownership.
• Luxury services & modern amenities.
• Reciprocity to other club & hotel locations.
• Fractional ownership is an investment.

Here are just a few of the very important discovery questions we ask each client through their decision making process:

1. How often do you vacation every year? Do you consistently vacation at least 2-4 weeks a year?
2. Do you tend to come back to Aspen year after year? If so, how many years have you been coming to Aspen?
3. Do you plan to continue to vacation in Aspen?
4. Where do you typically stay? Are you always satisfied with your accommodations?
5. Do you travel with family and friends? How many people are usually in your party?
6. Do you typically vacation the same time or week(s) each year?
7. Do you have children in school? What are their vacation schedules
8. Do you enjoy the services and amenities whenever you stay at a fine hotel?
9. When you vacation, would you enjoy having all the creature comforts of home?

Lisa Hatem has assisted over 500 families purchase their fractional real estate homes here in Aspen. There are many fractional real estate opportunities in Aspen/Snowmass, and they’re all very different. Let Lisa put her 10 years of valuable experience and extensive knowledge in fractional real estate to work for you. We will find the best fit for your family’s present and future vacation needs. For more information contact Lisa at 970.948.8370 or e-mail at lisa.hatem@sothebysrealty.com.

Your vacation time is the most valuable time in life. It’s what you work hard for all year! Memories of vacation time with family will be cherished forever. Assure that each and every vacation is the best it can be with fractional ownership.