The month of March is typically when a lot of out of town skiers descend upon Steamboat Springs during their spring breaks to take advantage of our Champagne Powder.Now that the ski mountain is closed, and we are officially in our “mud season”, it is time for the locals of Steamboat to take their spring break.The few visitors that are in town right now are wondering where the heck everyone has gone- and why are so many restaurants closed?But never fear, all will be back to normal before you know it.For those of you lucky enough to get away this week – have a fantastic time!
There is great news for those of you looking to purchase real estate with a USDA loan!Today marks the increase of their income limits – (for households between 1-4 people, it is now $92,000 and for households of 4-8, it is now $121,450).This is an increase of $31,000 for a household of 1-4.
Here are some quick facts on USDA loans, as provided by Kathryn Pederson of Yampa Valley Bank:
100% financing
No mortgage insurance
30 year fixed rate loan with no pre-payment penalty
Great rates!
2% fee paid directly to the USDA can be financed (102% financing)
Most condos are acceptable
30-60 day closings are typical
Do not have to be a first time homebuyer
Please let us know if you have any questions about buying real estate in Steamboat Springs .And for those of you who have been taking Susana’s “Be a Savvy Buyer” class, (or for those of you who would like to join the last two classes), don’t forget we are skipping this week for spring break and will be resuming class next Monday, the 27that 6:00 p.m.Please call Kristin at 970-819-8726 for details.
Easter weekend marked the end of the Steamboat ski season, so “mud season” is officially here.Although we had slow periods of snow throughout the season, we still ended up over the 400-inch mark, which is only the seventh time we’ve done so.
One of the great things about the mud season is that potential buyers can more easily see those condos on the market that were rented during the ski season.By the way, if you are considering buying and would like to learn more about the buying process, Susana Field still has a few openings in her free 4-class series that starts tonight.“Homebuying 301: Be A Savvy Buyer”, which is tonight, Thurs., April 16th, Mon., April 27th and Thurs., April 30th all from 6-8 p.m., will address topics such as “Why should I buy”;” How to Find the Best Home for My Money”; “What Will it Take to Get a Mortgage?;” “What’s all This Fine Print Above My Signature? ; “How Do I Make Sure My Home’s Not a Lemon”; and will feature local experts from the mortgage, title, appraisal and inspection fields.
If you would like to sign up, please call Susana at 970-846-3728
Yesterday I shared with you, here on our homepage, the Steamboat Springs real estate sales’ numbers from January 1st 2009 to March 21, 2009 (post can be found in our Blog). To compare it to this same period in 2008 and 2007, the Total Sales, Sales Pending and New Listings numbers look like this:
20092008 2007 Total Sales:38 133 207 Sales Pending:29 6 3 New Listings:332 51 7
Is there any question that this is a buyer’s market? The numbers are all inverted, meaning there is a lot of available inventory to pick from, and for the most part you can take your time looking, analyzing and selecting the property which best suit your needs. The best terms can also be had now because of the historically, incredibly low mortgage rates, in addition to many sellers being willing to be flexible and creative with terms such as move-in dates, covering repair of inspection items, etc. And now, regarding getting the property at the best price? What if we look at what a home sold for, compared to what the asking, or list, price was? _________________________________________________________________________________
2009HIGHLOWAVERAGEMEDIANTOTAL $LISTING#
LIST $: $4,200,000, $42,500, $670,390, $399,250, $25,474,820 38 SOLD $: $4,100,000, $40,000, $624,318, $370,000, $23,724,120 DOM: 718 24 240 204 Sold/List $: 98% 94% 93% 93% 93%
________________________________________________________________________________________ 2008 LIST $: $5,850,000, $10,000, $646,041, $385,000, $85,923,500 133 SOLD $: $5,400,000, $8,000, $616,983, $374,900, $82,058,833 DOM: 1756 0 265 127 Sold/List $: 92% 80% 96% 97% 96%_________________________________________________________________________________________ 2007 LIST $: $5,000,000, $25,500, $579,572, $365,000, $119,971,423 207 SOLD $: $4,375,000, $21,000, $558,575, $357,500, $115,625,142 DOM: 1004 0 179 102 Sold/List $: 88% 82% 96% 98% 96%
____________________________________________________________________
If I ignore the fluctuations of the highest and lowest priced properties, I can see that the average home, which sold for 96% of the asking price in both 2007 and 2008, dropped only 3%, to 93%, this year. The median dropped 4 to 5%, and the total again only 3%. And when you look at the actual average and median prices, you see that they have increased each year!So yes, total transaction numbers have dropped tremendously (207 transactions down to 38), as well as total sales in dollars ($116K down to $24K), but average prices have gone up ($559K to $624K), as well as median price (358K to 370K). Bottom line: Lots of properties to choose from, great mortgage rates if you can qualify, or maybe you have cash, and although prices have been rising it does show that Steamboat real estate prices have been, so far, recession proof. Or, others could argue that the prices are unrealistically high, given the economic pulse, and that is why so few have sold. Will they stay that way, or start dropping? You’ll have to stay tuned! Our take: We’re expecting to see some price drops, at least until the market turns around, at which point prices will be heading back up.P.S. If you noticed and are wondering why the most expensive properties had so many days on the market (DOM), they were all new-construction spec homes, which were listed maybe even before they broke ground, and didn’t go under contract until they were closer to their completion date.
With ski season winding down, sellers are going to be facing that time of the year when cash flow is going to become an issue. The most profitable months for a ski rental property in Steamboat Springs are December, January, February and March, where approximately 80% of the rental income for the entire year is received. Occupancy rates won’t begin to pick up again until the 4th of July, and carry through until Labor Day weekend in September. However, still at that time occupancy rates are not as high and rates are half as much as the ski season.
If you are looking to purchase a rental property, early spring is the best time of the year to negotiate a deal than any other in the Steamboat Springs real estate market! Sellers have just received the lions share of the income for the year, and have been able to use their property to ski for the season, and with rental incomes down approximately 20% this year, there may not be a better time to make a move.
If you would like to see the best properties that are available in your price range, please give us a call today!
Winter has returned to the northwest Colorado Rockies today with dark and snowy skies. This turnaround from the warm and sometimes rainy weather we’ve had the past week should make the 8,400 + skiers coming in on Saturday to the Yampa Valley Regional Airport happy. That will be a record number of en/deplanements to the airport since it opened in the 1960’s.
When you do good business, word gets around. And that statement is no more evident than what happened today, as our efforts at Buyer’s Resource have been recognized by a national newspaper, The New York Times!
An article published today regarding the luxury real estate market included quotes from myself along with one of my clients, Sutton Hamlin. If you would like to read the article, here is the link:
The luxury Steamboat condominium property Sutton purchased into is Christie Club. Christie Club owners enjoy one of the best ski-in, ski-out locations in Steamboat. Combine that location with excellent guest services and amenities, and you can see why Ms. Hamlin is very pleased with her purchase.
Incidentally, Christie Club just happens to have one of the best deals right now for a slopeside luxury condo. It is a two bedroom, two bath, professionally decorated residence consisting of over 1600 square feet and overlooks the Steamboat Ski Area. Christie Club has a year-round shuttle and picks owners up at the Hayden and Steamboat airports, as well as a shuttle to town, the grocery stores, or anywhere else an owner or guest has a hankering to explore. Owners also enjoy a Members’ lounge, ski storage, heated outdoor pool and spa, concierge, valet parking, and world-class service. When purchasing a Christie Club condo, owners also have membership to The Registry Club, a vacation home exchange network with other luxury residences around the world. And when you’re not here being pampered, you can benefit from the excellent rental income a premier slopeside residence provides.
This Steamboat condo is listed at only $1,075,000, or $665 per square foot. This is an excellent buy. Other slopeside condominiums average $893 per square foot, and most of those listed are much older than Christie Club, which was built in 2002.
If you are interested in receiving a “Cash Flow Analysis” of this property to see how affordable it can be, as well as additional information on why we feel this property is such a great deal, please let us know. It financially outperforms all other properties in our analysis, and all of the owners that we have assisted in purchasing in this property have been extremely pleased with their decision.
Yesterday, as Doug Labor mentioned in his blog post here, we learned that Todd Lodwick, a local Steamboat hero, won his second Gold Medal at the World Ski Championships in Liberac, Czechoslovakia this past weekend. Billy Demong, a New York native who has trained extensively in Steamboat Springs, also won his first Bronze Medal of the weekend. And there are two events more to go!
All of these medals were won in the sport called Nordic Combined Skiing, which is really big in our town; and in fact is the sport that has contributed the most to Steamboat Springs, Colorado being called Ski Town U.S.A. (We’ve sent more athletes to the Olympics than any other town; 69 and counting.)
Nordic Combined actually consists of two disciplines: ski jumping and cross-country skate skiing. And it’s not the type of ski jumping where the skiers go up in the air and perform all sorts of wild flips and things before landing back on the ground. That’s called freestyle, which consists of aerial stunts and mogul skiing.
The type of ski jumping I’m talking about occurs off a HUGE ski jump. The jumpers wear special jump suits and use special jump skis which are eight feet long or so and maybe five inches wide. From the top of the jump hill, each skier, one at a time, will drop off a bar they momentarily sit upon, down onto a cut track (a long slide-looking thing called the inrun), in a crouched position. They continue off the edge of the inrun out into thin air, and down, parallel to the hill until they touch down. In flight, the ski jumpers’ body stretches forward to where the edges of their skis, held in a V shape, are held alongside the sides of their face, and their arms are shot back like in the start of a swan dive.
When the TV cameras show you the jumper sitting on the bar at the top of the inrun right before take-off, as well as when the cameras follow the jumper off the end of the inrun and into the air, you can see the spectators at the bottom merely as pin points on the landscape; the jumpers are that high up.
The score that each athlete gets for his jump (based on distance plus style), determines at what time that athlete gets to leave the start gate for the cross-country skate ski race; the jumper who scored the most points goes out of the start gate first, the second best goes out so many seconds later, etc., until the last person goes out, which could be several minutes after the lead person took off.
The first person to cross the finish line (usually 5k or 10k in distance) wins.
Todd won this last Gold Medal after first gaining the most points for his jump, which gave him the best advantage into the race, and then holding on to the lead and claiming the medal by winning the 10K cross-country race, in just over 20 minutes. And that’s 20 minutes of racing full out!
Walking through downtown Steamboat Springs on a winter’s night, the ski jumps just across the Yampa River may be ablaze in lights. You may hear the announcer’s voice blaring out from the loudspeaker, and may make-out the jumpers soaring through the sky.
In the summer, you’ll notice that one ski jump hill looks like a bright green ribbon upon the side of Howelsen Hill. What you are looking at is the summer training ground for our local Olympic-hopeful jumpers. The summer –used inrun is made of a porcelain track and the landing hill is clothed in plastic, kept smooth by water.
Todd Lodwick grew up on a local ranch. Johnny Spillane, who won the USA’s first Gold Medal at the World Ski Championships In 2003, also grew up on a local ranch. Coincidence, or is it something about the western ranching work ethic that has enabled these young men to jump far and ski hard?
But for those of us who would just like to watch the sport, and watch it from the privacy of our own, beautifully appointed, living rooms with a nice fire crackling in the fireplace, well Steamboat has that to offer to you too. There are currently five prime downtown Loft developments with numerous units for sale which look straight at the jumps. I’d love to show you these or any other property which would meet your Steamboat real estate needs.
And before you know it, you’ll be jumping up and down too when our local boys make it big on the world stage. Yep, you’ll be claiming them as your own. And me? I’ll be right alongside you.
A recent search of our MLS here in Steamboat Springs, Colorado revealed some interesting information about the Steamboat Grand Resort Hotel & Condominiums.This 4-star condo hotel, with 1, 2, 3 and 4-bedroom condominiums, suites and penthouses, is extremely popular among frequent visitors to Steamboat because of its close proximity to the mountain (it is directly across the street from the gondola) and its great amenities, including a year-around outdoor pool, state-of-the-art health club and spa.However, people who really love it often purchase either a fractional ownership (in a 1/8 or 1/4 share interest) or a whole-ownership condominium.Regardless of the size of the interest owned in a unit at the Grand, the owner still enjoys all its benefits, including a private Owner’s Lounge in the hotel and private Owners Club at Gondola Square, First Tracks Ski Program, ski storage, and a highly coveted parking space in its underground parking garage.
In the past, it has been rare to see more than one whole ownership condo listed at the Grand at a time.Hence, I was surprised to find 5 new listings of whole ownership condos there within the last month, to make a total of 6 units available on the market.They range in price from $599,000 for a 2 bed/2 bath “Nordic” standard condo with a full kitchen, to a $2,400,000, 4 bed/5 bath luxury penthouse on the 7th floor, with two master suites. And there is a one 2 bed/3 bath unit on the 4th floor listed at $650,000 with a very motivated seller.
A unique feature of whole-ownership at the Grand is the potential for the owner to split it into either 1/8 or 1/4 shares and sell them separately. Fractional ownership at the Grand is deeded by calendars, which rotate yearly to give all owners equal opportunities for holiday weeks. With a 1/4 share, an owner gets 13 weeks a year, and with 1/8 share, those 13 weeks are split so that the owner gets 6 weeks one year, and 7 weeks the next.When owners stay at their condos, they pay housekeeping fees, which are based on the size of the units.
There is also a “space available” program which is great for Front Range residents.If the hotel is less than 90% occupied, an owner can stay in the hotel and pay only housekeeping fees.The owners are also able to enroll in the rental pool, which often covers their HOA dues. There are a few models, such as the Nordic, which is mentioned above, that have a lock-off potential with a double-queen hotel room, so the owner could potentially rent one side and stay in the other at the same time.They can also enroll into the RCI program to exchange weeks at other resorts around the world.
One of the things that people love about owning at the Steamboat Grand is the fact that because it is run as a hotel, they really feel like they are on vacation when they are staying there.And because it is so close to the ski area, it’s easy for various family members to ski on their own schedule. With the whole -ownership condos available, as well as 47-fractional ownerships ranging from $54,900 to $425,000, there are many opportunities for a wide range of buyers.
If the Steamboat Grand sounds appealing to you, please give us a call today.
This week in Steamboat Spring is the 96th annual Winter Carnival. Beginning as the organizing committee for the first Winter Carnival, the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club (SSWSC) has maintained the Winter Carnival as a service to the community since 1914. The Winter Carnival started as a way to help residents cope with cabin fever during the height of the winter season. The event continues to this day as a way to celebrate winter; as a reason for neighbors to gather; and as an opportunity for everyone to experience a piece of Ski Town USA® history and tradition.
This annual celebration includes a variety of events that embrace our western heritage and highlight Steamboat’s tradition of winter sports. The festivities include such events as: Ski Jumping competitions, a Snowboarding Jam Session, the Soda Pop Slalom, a Tubing Party, the Diamond Hitch Parade which includes the High School band on skis, the Street Events on Lincoln Avenue, and the Night Extravaganza at Howelsen Hill with a brilliant fireworks display and the famous Lighted Man.
As evidence of how fun and enjoyable these festivities are, you will see more locals to this event than any other in Steamboat.
If you are looking for a great condominium purchase, a one bedroom and one bath Rockies condominium has just been reduced today from its original list price of $264,900 to $168,000! The Rockies is only a few blocks from the ski area and has a wonderful repeat clientele who rent their properties. This 467 square foot condo was built in 1974 but is in very good condition. The complex offers onsite check-in, a year round heated swimming pool, hot tubs and very convenient shuttle service. This is one of the best one bedroom opportunities on the Steamboat Springs real estate market. The last Rockies condominium that sold for less than this price was in 2005!
For additional information, as well as a rental income history, please give us a call or email today!
