What would happen to Steamboat if there wasn’t a little controversy every now and then? As you can imagine a housing development of 487 acres that will, over the next 20 to 30 years provide an additional 2,500 housing units of varied types is likely to stir some debate.   

This master-planned project based on “New Urbanism” will integrate apartments, condos, townhomes and single family homes into a community setting that will also offer an area of commercial including a grocery store. No residence is more that a 1/8th mile from the nearest free to rider city bus stop. Included in the project are over 148 acres of parks and open space. Hiking and bike trails throughout the community will link to Silver Spur as well as the Steamboat Core trail via a tunnel under US 40 that will be built by the developer.   

In cooperation with the School district there will eventually be a K-8th grade school built on a nearby exiting site already owned by the school district. A new fire station is also incorporated into the development along with significant highway improvements for that area.   

Steamboat 700 has been endorsed by the City of Steamboat Springs as well as the County Commissioners, School district, Steamboat Pilot and Today, Yampa Valley Medical Center and many local civic leaders.   All ballots for this City wide election are due by March 9th and tabulation has already begun.

We at Buyer’s Resource feel that this project has been well planned and fits within our West Steamboat area plan that was revised in 1998. This project allows for an affordable housing component but more importantly provides our workers with an attainable housing alternative within the Steamboat City limits. The developer has worked diligently to listen to the needs and wants of the community and has obliged with this plan. We endorse this project and hope that you will take the time and effort to fully understand the dynamics and scope of Steamboat 700.  

If you were watching the Olympics this year you probably caught some of the buzz about Steamboat Springs’s Johnny Spillane winning two individual Silver Medals, Billy Demong who lived and trained in Steamboat winning a Gold Medal, and the Olympic 4-man team made up of Johnny, Billy, Todd Lodwick (of Steamboat) and Brett Camerota (trained in Steamboat) winning a Silver Medal. US Nordic combiners winning even one medal broke an Olympic draught.

Residents of Steamboat could be found at Olympian Hall, watching the events on a big screen. Residents and visitors alike congregated near Gondola Square, in front of One Steamboat Place to watch on the big screen there. And others, like Ulrich and Doug in our office, watched on their computers at their work desk.  Me, I was home with my husband John, each of us with a computer in our lap in case either of us lost the Live Feed.

During the last individual event, when Billy won Gold and Johnny the Silver, our son Cliff, who is a Nordic combined athlete himself and trains with these guys was sitting in front of the computer at the library of his High School. He was making up school work he’d missed during his recent three week trip to Europe where he competed in the World Junior Championships in Germany and a Continental Cup in Austria. As the Olympic event got underway, Cliff called and we gave him the website for the Live Feed.  Ten minutes before the end of the race Cliff’s computer lost the Live Feed and he called us up again.  There, holding the phone between me and John, we screamed out blow-by-blow, how Johnny and Billy were in the lead, how the Austrian with them was successfully holding on, and then getting ahead, and then falling back, and Billy sprints ahead and Johnny follows and the Austrian is dropped and Billy and Johnny cross the finish line in first and second. OMG OMG OMG! Cliff says “okay,” hangs up and gets back to his school work.

After all, that was last week, and this week is the 2010 Ski Jumping and Nordic combined Junior Olympics, which this year happens to be held here in Steamboat. For Cliff to compete and defend his two previous Ski Jumping and Nordic combined championships, school and ski club policy says he has to be caught up with his schoolwork. As of this writing I still don’t know if he academically qualifies or not.

But with or without Cliff, the Junior Olympics of course will go on.  There won’t be a computer feed, but it will be LIVE in downtown Steamboat Springs at Howelsen Hill. Thirteen athletes (or 12) from the Rocky Mountain Division, 10 from the Intermountain Division which trains in Park City, 10 from Eastern Division, 31 from the Central Division and possibly some from Alaska and Canada, will attend Opening Ceremonies Tuesday Night before their three days of competition.

Billy, Johnny, Todd and Brett may all be retiring between now and the next Olympic Games. Come see for yourself first-hand then, the future Olympians who will now be following in their extraordinary wake. Catch the buzz. And if you see Cliff Field competing, shake his hand and congratulate him on getting his schoolwork done!

That is been the Steamboat Springs mantra as we sent 17 young athletes from the winter Sports Club off to Vancouver and the Olympics. The send off was a party as we blocked off Lincoln Avenue and brought in a huge monitor and stage. More than 2,000 people gathered to celebrate and encourage these great representatives. The lighting of our own Olympic torch on the County Building lawn and fireworks off of the roof helped warm the celebration.

 

Highlights of the games for the Steamboat crowd were the Nordic Combined which consists of jumping followed by cross-country skiing.  Two individual events sandwich a team event. In total there are 9 medals awarded to the Nordic Combined events. The United States team made up of primarily Steamboat born and/or raised athletes won 4 of the 9 possible medals.

 

It all started on the 2^nd day of Olympic competition with the normal hill individual. Steamboat native Johnny Spillane took a silver medal with Steamboat Native Todd Lodwick  taking 4^th and long time Steamboat’s winter sports club athlete Bill Demong taking 6^th place. This set up the team event where 4 team members jump then run a relay of 5k each. At the end the Americans with the three skiers above plus Bret Camerota were able to take 2^nd place and walk away with a silver medal. Last of the events  is the large hill individual which saw Bill Demong take the gold followed closely by Johnny Spillane. In the history of the Olympics the United States had never won a medal in only two events, Biathlon and Nordic Combined.  Thanks to the great teammates and friends from Steamboat Springs that 86 year drought has been snapped.

 Now all that is left is to welcome them all home. That, my friends, will be quite another celebration!

1. Get Your Start in Investing

Buy a new home and rent out your current home. And Voila! You are now a real estate investor and Uncle Sam has helped you out with a $6500 tax credit. If you have owned your current home for five years, consecutively, out of the past eight, you qualify for the long-time homeowner credit. You do need to move into the new home and live in it as your primary residence for three years. But you can do whatever you want with the first home once you move into the new one.

2. Buy Now, Sell Later

Buy your new home now while the inventory is plentiful and mortgage rates are low.  Since you don’t have to sell your current home in order to get the tax credit, you don’t have to be in a rush to sell it. You can keep it until prices go back up again. In the meantime, either rent it out or just keep it empty while you are trying to sell it. But remember that in order to avoid Capital Gains taxes you’ll need to sell it within three years after you move out.

Just like with the height requirements for the cool Disneyland rides, there are set requirements you need to meet to get the credit. To see if you qualify for the credit, take this painless eligibility test:
http://www.homebuyertaxcredit.com/eligibility.aspx

Then let’s go shopping! We have until April 30th to get something under contract.

This article appeared in a newsletter produced by Joe Birkinbine of ATP Financial Services here in Steamboat. Joe is a financial planner as well as an instructor and trainer for pilots. I thought the article interesting enough to share.  Ulrich  

Price bubbles in technology stocks, crude oil, home prices, credit, and other areas posed far-reaching problems for investors.

For example, the past two recessions were each preceded by (and likely caused by) price bubbles: The recession that began in December 2007 was preceded by a bubble in real estate; the 2001 recession was preceded by a bubble in technology stocks.  Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that asset price bubbles and the financial booms that they cause were perhaps “the most difficult problem for monetary policy this decade.�

The hot topic right now seems to be where the next bubble will pop up in our economy. But can ordinary investors protect themselves from bubbles? Is it possible to tell the difference between an asset bubble and a legitimate investment opportunity?  What Is a Bubble?A bubble typically occurs when there is widespread speculation that a particular asset is going to increase in value. The subsequent spike in demand for the asset drives up the price, but when the anticipated gains don’t materialize, some segment of the investing public is left holding an overpriced asset. Losses occur as the market adjusts to represent the true value of the asset. Bubbles can occur in the economy at large, in a particular financial market, or in a particular security or commodity. Generally speaking, most bubbles get started with the belief that the investment is a sure thing and thus anyone who manages to purchase the hot asset is guaranteed a return because the price will always rise. One other common ingredient is the notion that fundamentals don’t matter anymore, which leads people into a things-are-different-this-time mentality.  A Saltwater BubbleHistory is littered with investment bubbles, but the first may have been the South Sea bubble, a stock scam in 18th century England. See if any elements of this story sound familiar. The South Sea Company was granted a monopoly on trading routes with Spanish South America in exchange for assuming England’s war debt. So great was the anticipated value of the trade routes that investors became desperate for South Sea Company stock. The company simply issued shares to meet the demand because there was no law to prevent it from doing so. It soon became quite fashionable to own South Sea shares. Many of England’s rich and powerful were drawn in, which, combined with the company’s lavish offices (built and furnished before any trade voyages were launched), further added to the perception of a sure thing. The share price peaked after appreciating 1,000%. When eventually it became evident that the company was making little profit and its officers had acted fraudulently, the share price plummeted. Thousands of investors were bankrupted, and not only because the stock crashed. In addition to spawning many copycat scams, the scandal caused bank failures and a loss of confidence in stock investing. The British government responded with legislation that later came to be called the “Bubble Act of 1720.�2 

By Susana

If there is any question as to why you would want to move to Steamboat Springs, Colorado…If there is any question as to why you would want to stay living in Steamboat once you moved here…our Olympic Send-off Friday night would have given you a big resounding answer. It is because of who you are and who we are together.

Sure Steamboat is known for its Champagne Powder and bluebird skies. A year-round outdoor recreational mecca, and world class ski resort, nicknamed Ski Town USA for producing more winter Olympians than any other town – 86 and counting. But what does this have to do with a home?

You will move here because Steamboat is NOT all resort town and is NOT at all a fake town. Steamboat is a real town that happens to conveniently have a world-class ski resort attached.

We are, first and foremost, an amazing community.  We are a community that raises Olympians, because we too are all Olympians in breadth of heart and depth of soul.
 
We close off Main Street, re-routing US Highway 40 for Winter Carnival, the 4th of July and the Halloween evening stroll, because community is important, family is important and kids are important.

We play hard, we work hard, we celebrate together and we mourn together. We are the best and the brightest coming from all walks of life to this cherished hamlet in the Rocky Mountains to make it our homes.
 
We bring our children here so they can grow up in the best public schools; so they can have Howelsen Hill, our small city-owned downtown ski hill, as an extension of their backyard and the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club as an extension of their family, with Olympians as both their role models and their coaches.

Thousands turned out alongside the Courthouse lawn for our Olympic Send-off Friday night, when we once again rerouted traffic. When Rick DeVos, the director of the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, asked how many in the crowd were visitors, we heard a loud cheer.  When he asked how many in the crowd were locals, the roar we gave was deafening.

These, after all, are our children we were sending off to the Olympics; our neighbors, our friend’s kids, our older children’s prior classmates, our younger children’s known-on a-first-name-basis heroes.

Their glory during the games will be our glory, and their agony, should there be any, will also be our agony.  As such, when the games begin we will all be feeling the roar of the Olympic blood within our own veins, because we are community, we are teammates, we are family and we are Steamboat!

Why move to Steamboat, and why stay in Steamboat once you move here?  Because you too feel the Olympic Spirit within your own blood, and it is here you and your family will feel most at home.

I may not have a medal to hand you, per se, but I would be honored to help hand you your keys.

The 2009 Steamboat Springs real estate market spelled opportunity for buyers and dismay for sellers.  One can also spell the word ‘buy’ several different ways when referring to 2009…as in “Good Bye” for those being happy to see it pass, and “Good Buy” for those who looked for, and found the time to be right to buy Steamboat real estate in 2009.  There were many factors that provided opportunities for the latter to occur, including record low interest rates, tax incentives, ample inventory, desperate sellers accepting lower than appraised value prices, as well as foreclosure and short sale opportunities.

As an exclusive buyer’s broker, I say 2009 was a “Good Buy”, and as such, my newsletter analyzing the 2009 market has been named “Good Buy, 2009″.  There are some very interesting things that the newsletter points out.  It can be seen from the “Buyer’s Toolbox” menu located on this web page in the above scroll down menu, then by clicking the “Monthly Newsletters” link.

Findings show buying opportunities may extend into 2010, but the market seems to be slowly coming out of its first quarter 2009 low.  It is hard to tell just how much longer all of the benefits buyers have now will last!

A client of mine, who’s considering making an offer on a condominium, asked these questions about it being a short sale. (Short Sale: The amount the lender will get from the sale is “short� the amount due them to fully pay off the loan.) 

Her Questions: Regarding the short sale, would it be quicker with a cash offer?  Can you negotiate the price at all?  What info should we be aware of regarding a short sale.  I assume we would still be getting title insurance and I won’t buy anything without an inspection.

My Answers: Regarding the short sale, I don’t know how much the current owners actually owe the bank, but the bank is obviously owed more than the $149,900.00 asking price, since this is a short sale. In a short sale, it is not just the seller that has to accept your offer. First, the seller does have to accept the offer, but then they send it off to their lender to see if the lender will also accept that amount.

I don’t know if the lender, in this particular case, has already approved the $149,900.00 as a sale price or not. Sometimes we do know that the price has been pre-approved by the lender. Once, we saw it where the lender came back and said the only amount they would accept was more than the asking price! (That deal didn’t close.) But this shouldn’t happen if the sale price has already been approved by the lender.

Regardless, it can take a long time for the lender to respond to an offer. It can take up to four months! Or it can move much quicker. Comfort with ambiguity, as well as patience, thus is greatly needed in a short sale.

We can of course offer less money than the asking price, but since a short sale isn’t the usual offer/counter-offer scenario with the lender as it is with a typical just buyer-seller purchase, it’s best to offer your best shot right up front.

Yes there is a benefit to offering cash – likelier acceptance by both the seller and the lender because it offers them a greater likelihood that the deal will close since it isn’t dependant on the vagaries of the current lending environment.

Will cash make things move quicker? Yes, in that you should be able to close within a couple of days of the lender giving their approval to your offer, rather than having to then wait for your own loan to be approved. And possibly it would help the lender make up their mind quicker.

Yes we would do an inspection, although the lender won’t make any repairs, and you’ll be buying it “as is.� But we will make the purchase conditional on the inspection results. If you don’t like what is found, you can break the deal and get your earnest money back. If you proceed with the purchase, you’ll at least know what you are getting into. And yes we will get title insurance.

The other thing to know about a short sale is that unlike under just a normal contract (a short sale has a short sale addendum attached to the contract), the seller can back out of the deal, as can the buyer, at any time and for no reason. So, although we’ll do everything we can to prevent that from happening, you’ll have to be willing to live with more uncertainty while we are under contract with a short sale than you normally would have to.

Minus 28 degrees! That’s right, minus 28 this morning. A friend who lives west of town by the river had it at minus 33. What does that mean in Ski Town USA? Pretty much business as usual. School isn’t cancelled until the thermometer hits 40 below. Both of my girls went through the entire school system here in Steamboat and NEVER had a snow day.

The temperature on top of the gondola on Mt. Werner sat at a plus 8 degrees as of 8:00 am this morning. That is a 36 degree difference from town to the mid way point of the Steamboat Ski area. Another way to look at it would be the same difference from the temperature that water freezes to a short wearing, golf playing 68 degrees. How is this possible? It’s called a temperature inversion. Cold air is heavier and sinks down the valley walls while a layer of lighter, warmer air caps the inversion. Most people won’t believe it until they experience this phenomenon.   Alright, enough about the temperature, let’s move on to another number. 118. That is the number of inches of snow that the ski area has received to date. This pretty much puts us on par to reach our average of 350 inches of snowfall for the winter. The winter of 2007-2008 brought us our highest snowfall total of 496 inches. The interesting and forgotten number is that the Ski Area closed a week earlier than normal that year and the week following the end of the ski season we received another 60 to 70 inches which would have increased this amount dramatically. The most snow fall in one month was January 1996 where we saw 216.5 inches of snow fall.Let’s move on to 3.8%. That is the national inflation rate for 2008. 2009 actually saw a .04% decrease in inflation. Unemployment has gone from 5.8% in 2008 to 9.3% in 2009. Again on a national level existing home sales (in the millions) have increased from 4,913 in 2008 to 5,011 in 2009 with the National Association of Realtors predicting another increase in 2010 to 5,694. NAR is also predicting a 3.6% increase in cost of homes for 2010. Within the Steamboat Springs area Multiple Listing Service (MLS) we saw 427 single family home sales in 2007 down to 148 in 2009. Average price of a single family home in 2007 was around $800,000 and in 2009 was $631,000. Of course there are a myriad of reasons why there are these differences. Remember that these are only the single family homes and do not include condos, townhomes, multiplexes or fractional. Still it is always fun to look at these numbers. Numbers are what we do at Buyer’s Resource. We do it because it is fun and interesting but, most important; it’s valuable to understand the market in which we live. Of course we go into much more depth and detail but this blog is longer than anticipated already. Why not just give us a call and let us know what numbers you would like to glean and let us show you how we can put these numbers and our expertise to work for you. 

By Susana

If you visit a Traditional Agent’s website, you’ll typically see their “Featured Listings.� These are properties that they have a contract with the owner/seller to sell – that is why they are featured. Here at Buyer’s Resource, since we are an Exclusive Buyer Agency, which means we don’t sell homes at all, but rather help buyers find and buy the best property for their particular needs, we don’t have any “Featured Listings� we are obligated to sell.

Instead, we consider equally the entire selection of the thousand and more properties that are currently available in the Steamboat Springs area, at least at first. As far as our “featured listings�, they are the ones we think are worthy of your attention, period.

Here’s two:
If you are looking for reasonably priced land near Steamboat where you can build a house with direct views to the ski mountain, have an already existing barn, fencing and the beginnings of a horse arena, you should look at a 20-acre parcel in the gorgeous South Valley priced at $439,500.

Are you in search of a three-bedroom home in town with a separate family room/suite area, great view, and a two-car garage with an almost-adjoining large, bright storage room? I’ve had my eye on a duplex in the Fish Creek Falls neighborhood, between downtown and the mountain, which just really has a great feel to it. When it first went on the market in April of 2008 it was priced at $749,900. Since then it has dropped three times before its current price of $594,000.

If you’d like to know more about these or any other properties for sale in Steamboat Springs, we are always here for you.