Today we will continue to update the 2011 Jackson Hole Real Estate Market with Average Sales Prices.  The Chart below does a comparision on Average Sales Price vs. the Prior Year Average Sales Price.  As you can see, the average prices for property sales in Jackson Hole, Wyoming have been lower in 2011 in 10 (to be clear the “Red bars” are for 2011 and “Blue bars” are for 2010) of the last 11 months.  The exception was December 2011 when we saw a few very large transactions take place.  We have seen a lot of sales (to be outlined in a future blog post) in the “below $850,000 range” which have had an influence on Average Sales Price.

Average Prices Graph

Christy and Garth Gillespie, associates for Jackson Hole Sotheby’s, are currently updating their website – www.JHExperts.com.  We are updating our Blog frequently and will have our new site up and running in no time.  In the meantime, thanks for visiting our blog and feel free to email us at garth.gillespie@jhsir.com or call us at (307) 413-5243 if you need more information on the Jackson Hole Real Estate Market.

Here is some excellent information about the Jackson Hole Real Estate Market.  Please notice the trend – our market is improving.  The month of December 2011 was the second strongest dollar volume month we have seen in a year.  As the chart points out December unit volumes rose 60% and sales volume rose 72% when compared to last years numbers.  The overall trend on unit sales and sales volume is on an upward slope.  Unit volumes have improved 8 of the last 9 quarters!  Thats impressive.

To get more information about the Jackson Hole Real Estate market check back here frequently or email us at garth.gillespie@jhsir.com.  Christy and Garth Gillespie are some of Jackson’s strongest real estate agents call us to find out why and how we do it – (307)-413-5243.

Wow – Christy and I just learned some powerful information this week that we would like to share.   It was brought to our attention that buyers that are in the lower end of the market should be talking with their mortgage bankers about FHA loans and or assumable mortgages.  This is forward thinking but right now we are experiencing record low interest rates.  Buyers of properties right now are able to secure financing for under 3% in some situations.

Why are we bringing this up?  When a FHA homebuyer is buying a home today they will have the opportunity to lock in these extremely low interest rates.  Then when the buyer becomes a seller some day they will have an assumable mortgage.  This means a qualified purchaser can “take over” the loan. 

As an example, a $300,000 loan at 4% today carries with it a $1,432.25 principal and interest payment on a 30 year fixed mortgage. If offered for sale in five years, the purchaser could assume the $271,858.56 balance with the same $1,432.25 payment and remaining term of 25 years. The total payments over the 25 years would be $429,675.

Compare that to a new $272,000 loan at 6.5% for 25 years, which would carry a monthly payment of $1,836.56 (over $400 more a month than the assumption and more than $120,000 more over the 25 year term).

At 6.5% for 25 years, to wind up with the same payment as the assumed mortgage, our borrowers would only be getting $212,000…$60,000 LESS!

The point here is that, when rates go up, homes with assumable mortgages will have more value and will sell at higher prices because they are more affordable.

We hope you find this information helpful.  For additional buying tip in the Jackson Hole Real Estate market please contact the Jackson Hole Experts – Christy and Garth Gillespie at 307-413-5243 or email at garth.gillespie@jhsir.com.  You can also visit Jackson Hole Sotheby’s website at www.jhsir.com.

We are going to start a series of blog posts that hopefully create a pattern that we can look back on and see if we were right.  Christy and I believe that there could not be a better time to buy real estate in Jackson Hole.  There are excellent values in all price ranges and we believe the amount of inventory allows buyers some good choices.  With that said we do believe a lot of the great properties that have been offered at reduced prices are starting to get purchased and that inventory is going down.  I saw this video yesterday which is from Barbara Corcoran – a real estate “expert” – that outlines some of the reasoning behind buying now and or selling right now.  Take a look.

Stay tuned as we will be posting quite a bit of information that we feel will be important moving forward into the 2012 real estate sales year here in Jackson Hole.  For additional information on real estate or anything else Jackson Hole please feel free to call us at 307-413-5243 or email us at garth.gillespie@jhsir.com.

Here’s an updated article the talks about the new record low interest rates.  Rates like this have not been seen for over 50 years.

http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&date=20120105&id=14666486 

For more information on Jackson Hole Real Estate please contact Garth and Christy Gillespie @ Jackson Hole Sotheby’s – 307-413-5243.

Novemeber 2011 has come and gone here in the Jackson Hole Real Estate Market and we witnessed a pretty strong month when looking at the year as a whole.  There were 31 transactions last month — No quite the 13780 properties that sell every day in the United States but Jackson does contribute!  “How’s the Jackson Hole Real Estate Market?” — Well, “We sell a property every day!” 

In a couple of weeks we will be able to show you a graph of how we measure up when comparing Nov. 2010 to Nov. 2011 but in a nutshell, last year we had about $10 million more in sales volume but transactions were 16% lower.  November 2011 saw a median sales price of about $550,000.  This is quite low indicating a stronger low end market.  This is encouraging in my eyes as we are really starting to see the lower end market strengthen.  This of course is being generated by a few short sales, bank sales and realistic sellers.  1/3 of the market in Novemeber sold for under $400,000.

The higher end market saw some good signs too as we saw 2 transactions of about $7 million.  The Jackson market had 9 sales over $1 million. 

Other stats:  3 vacant land transactions, 5 condo transactions in Teton Village, 10 sales in the Town of Jackson.

Please call with any questions or if you need any additional information on the Jackson Hole Real Estate Market — Garth Gillespie, sales associate and partner of the Gillespie Real Estate Team – Jackson Hole Sotheby’s, 307-413-5243 or email at garth.gillespie@jhsir.com. 

Don’t miss the opportunity to tour Cottonwood Flats – Jackson Hole’s newest townhome development. These brand new townhomes feature hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances, attached garages and plenty of windows. The covered front porches and sidewalks throughout the development contribute to an ‘old neighborhood’ feel. All units come with a 1 year builders warranty.

Cottonwood Flats is located off South Park Loop Road and Whitehouse Drive – across the street from Indian Trails, a single family home neighborhoood. Cottonwood Flats is within walking distance to the Middle School and a bike ride away from the High School. There are connections to the great bike paths throughout the development.

There are currently 24 units complete - with 8 more units under construction and should be completed by Fall 2011. There are two 2-bedroom units available for sale and two 3-bedroom units available. The 2 bedroom units are 1,105 square feet and have a 1 car garage. The 3 bedroom units are 1,602 square feet and have a 2 car garage. Living in Cottonwood Flats is maintenance free as the HOA installs and maintains the landscaping, plows the sidewalks and driveways and will maintain the neighborhood park (constructed in a future phase). Dogs and cats are allowed.

We have model units that are open and available to show – just make an appointment.  Contact Garth Gillespie, sales representative and partner of the The Gillespie Real Estate Team at Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty by email garth.gillespie@jhsir.com or call me at 307-413-5243 to set up an appointment.

The first half of the year, the Jackson Hole real estate market experienced a slight improvement in sales dollar volume, but saw a significant increase in unit sales, suggesting that more transactions are happening in Teton County, but at lower sales prices.

Through June 2011, closed real estate transations in the Jackson Hole area were up 28% compared with the same period in 2010, while dollar volume sales rose improved only slightly. However, both unit sales and dollar volume were well above the lows of the real estate market in 2009 – unit sales up 96% and sales volume up 114%. Click here to view graph

June has proven to be the best month in 2011 for real estate sales dollar volume. In the month of June in Teton County, there were 29 transactions totaling $36.5 million. Compare this to the previous month of May (typically a slow month in real estate out here), where sales volumn totaled only $12 million.  Click here for a graph

Real Estate Sales by Area:

North of Town has seen the largest improvement in sales volume, with a 48% increase over the first half of 2010. North of the Town of Jackson includes neighborhoods such as Owl Creek, Solitude, Bar-B-Bar Meadows, Jackson Hole Golf & Tennis and Moulton Ranches. There were 23 sales totaling $46 million through June 2011.  South of Jackson Hole also experienced an increase in sales volume with sales totaling $21 million, a 28% increase over the first half of 2010. Teton Village experienced the largest increase in real estate transactions, with a whopping 81% increase over 2010. There were 38 sales in the first half of 2011, with many of the sales happening in the condo and condo-hotel market in Teton Village. Many investors took advantage of low prices on bank owned and foreclosed condos, in order to have a place located walking distance to Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

For more information contact The Gillespie Real Estate Team at 307-739-8056 or garth.gillespie@jhsir.com.

A recent Wall Street Journal article suggests the clouds may be lifting over the national vacation home market, especially in the luxury segment of the real estate market. Overall, the second-home market is down 11% from 2009 and roughly 25% from 2006, compared to a 22% drop in the overall housing market, according to the article. However, the higher end of the vacation home market ($5 million and up) has held up much better. Douglas Duncan, chief economist at Fannie Mae explains “At the top of the market, particularly luxury homes, prices have proven very elastic, and have sprung upward quickly”.

Markets such as Palm Beach Island, FL, the Hamptons, NY and Aspen, CO have been experiencing an uptick in inquiries and real estate sales. This is not to say the boom is back, however. Overall, properties that are in prime locations, such as waterfront or ski resort properties, are selling, but homes in less desirable locations are still a bit sluggish. In addition, areas that were able to avoid over building and therefore keep inventories at a manageable level have also seen an improvement in sales.

What’s interesting is that most vacation home buyers aren’t looking to make a big profit. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), more than 80% of second home buyers surveyed reported that they purchased for consumption reasons – to live in the house and enjoy it – not for investment. Additionally, many second home buyers are cash buyers (36% of vacation home purchases last year were all cash deals, according to NAR) and they can therefore sidestep many of the restrictions placed on second home purchases by lending institutions.

In Jackson Hole, inventory levels remain high, creating many opportunities for second homebuyers in Teton Village, The Aspens, Teton Pines, and Shooting Star Golf Community. If you are interested in a link of available second home properties in Jackson Hole, please email us at garth.gillespie@jhsir.com — The Gillespie Real Estate Team at Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty.

For a full copy of the Wall Street Journal article, click here.