Spring in Steamboat is the most unpredictable time of the year but also the most interesting. No doubt we will experience a few more snow showers but in between we should be able to get in a few rounds of golf and get that bike all tuned up for the summer. The river will begin to flow in earnest and the buds on the trees are just another indication that we are emerging from our winter season. Sales of land in Routt County should see a little spike as clients can actually see what they are purchasing. It is also a time for most locals to take a breath, go on a nice vacation and return ready and eager to tackle all that summer has to offer.

As we are apt to do we want to find a culprit to blame for the current economic woes. It must be the banks fault or unscrupulous corporate CEO’s. Who can we vilify for our current state? Well maybe no person or set of people in particular but an accounting method. What?  Many economists are reexamining FASB 157 or “Mark to Market�.  An interesting Article by Barry Habib explains this accounting phenomenon.  Here is a portion of his article:Let’s go back to the stock market crash, which occurred between 2000 and 2002. With the S&P down 49% and the NASDAQ down 71%, many people lost much of their life savings and they were very angry. Companies like Enron and Arthur Andersen were able to find ways to make books look more attractive, which was reflected in artificially inflated stock price.Both the public and Congress had a call for more transparency in business and hastened the passage of “Mark to Market� accounting.This is the notion that all assets should be valued as if they were sold on a daily basis. Under the letter of the law, failure to do this conservatively can now result in jail time. So what’s the problem? Let me make a quick analogy using a scenario that should make perfect sense to you.Let’s imagine that you own a house in a neighborhood where all of the houses are priced around $300,000. Unfortunately, your neighbor, who owns his house free and clear, falls ill and needs emergency cash quickly. Because he is under duress, he must sell the home for $200,000 in order to get the cash he needs right away, even though the home is worth considerably more. Now would this mean that your home is now worth the same $200,000 that your neighbor sold his for? Of course not, because you are not forced to sell under duress. It just means that your new neighbor got a great deal.However, if you were a publicly traded company and had to abide to Mark on Market account rules, you and the rest of your neighbors would now have to say, by law, that your house was worth only $200,000 – not the $300,000 you would get for it if you actually sold.Please let me know and I will be glad to forward you the remainder of the article which goes on to explain how this accounting method can devastate a bank or lending institution.As the season draws to a close we are seeing increased inventory and motivated sellers in the Steamboat Springs Real Estate market. It’s a great time to take advantage of low interest rates and a strong negotiating position. Give us a call and let us show you how we can save you time and money and get you into that property that you have longed for.

The Steamboat Springs Board of Realtors holds a unique meeting every Tuesday morning. It is usually attended by 100 + Realtors who use the morning to present new properties that have hit the market or properties that have seen a price drop or any other relevant fact. After the meeting we go on tour to see various properties that are on the market. This allows us to see a wide variety of products as well as become familiar with other Steamboat Real Estate Agents. The following was taken from a hand out from Yampa Valley Bank and I thought it was quite interesting. Hope you do also:

A funny thing happened on the way to the depression. A recovery occurred. Over the past two weeks, the major stock market barometers-the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index- have surged nearly 20%. The good news embedded in the surge is that the stock market is one of the more reliable indicators on the likely direction of the economy.There are a number of reasons investors are feeling more upbeat these days, none more important than the improving housing market. Last week, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales unexpectedly increased 5.1% to an annual rate of 4.72 million in February, as foreclosures pushed down prices and lured first-time buyers into the market.Lower prices are also driving new-home sales, which rose 4.7% last month to a 337,000 annual rate. Homebuilders have been aggressively discounting, with the median sales price for a new home falling to $200,900 from $251,000 in February 2008. But it is worth noting that the median price for a new home is still high compared with the median sales price of $165,400 for an existing home.Lower mortgage rates are an important factor in the recent housing-market recovery.  In fact, rates aren’t just lower they are the lowest they’ve been since Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. According to the National Bureau of Economics Research, the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate FHA-insured mortgage was 5.15 % in December 1956. That’s about where we are today, and depending on credit scores, income levels, and debt ratios, many borrowers are getting mortgage rates below 5%.The return of the mortgage-asset market is another sign sunny days might be just over the horizon. It didn’t receive much press coverage last week, but both Citigroup and Bank of America have been aggressively buying AAA-rated mortgage backed securities,  including some that use alt-A and option adjustable-rate mortgages as collateral. Citigroup and Bank of America obviously believe these assets are a good investment, which means many other investors are likely thinking the same thing, and that could be very good news for the credit markets. Rising mortgage asset prices will further bolster bank’s balance sheets, enabling them to turn up the lending spigot.