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.

Christy and Garth Gillespie work together and approach every transaction with the intention of meeting and exceeding their customers’ expectations. They make sure the only surprises someone receives are good surprises by searching for the unexpected and striving for perfection. Real estate is not their hobby; it is their life and profession. They enjoy working with people from all locations and backgrounds, and after 15 years in Jackson Hole they have helped many discover the joys of living in such a wonderful community. Christy and Garth offer detailed, accurate market analysis, knowledge of local trends and experience in the Jackson Hole real estate market. They share a sincere love and passion of real estate and the details that go along with it, including financing, title work, inspections and everything else that goes along with the journey. Christy and Garth have systems to check and double check every detail. They see each transaction as an opportunity and do not take opportunities for granted. Christy, originally from Naples, Florida, literally grew up in the real estate business. Her parents owned a successful real estate company where she got her start, and success in the business seemed to follow her. Her love for the mountain lifestyle became evident after many family trips to Lake Tahoe and Vail, Colorado. She was lucky enough to find Garth at the University of Denver, where they both graduated with degrees in Business, and they married in Grand Teton Park. Garth joined Christy in real estate 11 years ago and hasn’t looked back since. Garth, who originally hails from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, loves dealing with people as well as taking marketing to new levels. Christy and Garth share their life with their six-year-old daughter. As a family, they spend their time hiking the Tetons, fishing and camping, and enjoying the outdoors. The Gillespie’s love Jackson’s wonderful sense of community and are grateful to be able live and raise their daughter in such a vibrant community.

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.

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. 

According to the Teton County MLS, real estate sales volume in the 4th quarter of 2010 was up from the same 4th quarter in 2009.  Sales Volume increased to approx. $100 million in Teton County, compared to approx. $85 million in 2009. Unit volume (i.e. properties sold) has rebounded from the 2008 lows, however they remain well below pre-recession levels.  Units sold in the 4th quarter of 2008 was a low of approx. 50 units; 4th quarter 2009 saw about 85 units sold and 2010 experienced 80 units sold.

On a year over year basis, 4th quarter 2010 was disappointing. All other quarters for 2010 showed improvement from the same quarter in 2009, except 4th quarter, which saw units sales drop 6.3%. However, 2011 is off to a good start and The Gillespie Real Estate Team is optimistic that 2011 will bring increased sales to Teton County, Wyoming.

February 2011 was a very active month in real estate sales in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Overall, this month we saw 16 real estate sales in the Jackson Hole area, with most sales concentrated in Teton Village and Wilson, WY. Total real estate sales volume for the month topped $27 million, with an average sale price of just over $2 million. On average properties were selling at 85% of thier latest listing price and, on average, were on the market for 245 days prior to selling.

It appears the record snowfall at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, encouraged many buyers to purchase condos, condohotels and homes in Teton Village this winter. Of the 16 total real estate sales in the area, 1/2 of them were near the ski resort. These sales covered a wide range of properties and price points  – a 2 week fractional sold at the Teton Club, a 1 bedroom condohotel at Snake River Lodge and Spa and a 3 bedroom condohotel at Teton Mountain Lodge sold this February. There were also 2 sales of condominiums in the Nez Perce condo and the Teewinot building. These condos are a short walk or shuttle ride from the Aerial Tram at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.   A 2 bedroom unit at the Four Seasonsand a 3 bedroom unit at Crystal Springs also sold, both with ski-in, ski-out access. A large home in Lake Creek Ranch and the end of Granite Creek Road across from Teton Village sold in early February.

Wilson also saw several sales this past month including a home in Stilson Ranch, a home in Crescent H Ranch and large home with a horse stable in Wilson. There were twp sales in Town - a 2 bedroom Ponderosa condo that was listed at $99,900 and a Love Ridge Condo at the base of Snow King Resort. The largest sale of the month was a 10,000 square foot, 5 bedroom home in Spring Creek Ranch that was listed at $9,500,000.

The Gillespie Real Estate Team of Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty is always tracking the real estate market in Jackson Hole. We’d be happy to share our market knowledge, insight and experience – just give us a call at 307-739-8078.

Working at Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty has so many benefits…To name a few – We have the strongest real estate professionals in the Jackson Hole Valley.  Year after year we post an incredible market share usually averaging over 60% of the buyers in the market.  That is staggering when you compare it to like markets.  Technology is another – www.jhsir.com is one of the best Real Estate websites out in the cyber world.  Sales office locations is another huge benefit – especially for sellers as JH Sotheby’s has working real estate professionals located in the Town of Jackson, Teton Village, the Aspens and all the major resort hotels at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort – including the Four Seasons, Terra and Teton Mountain Lodge.  Finally but not the last benefit is out ”stats man” - Leonard Klieman.  Every month Leonard looks over the data and provides all of us up to date market statistics.  Today I’ll share the latest December 2010 information.

During the end of 2010 we have started to see an increase in activity with properties listed over $2 million.  This continued in December 2010.  In Dec. 2010 we had 6 sales over $1 million with an average sales price of $3.7 million compared to 10 sales over $1 million in 2009 but had an average sales price of $1.9 million.  Overall we had 20 transactions during the month.  Unfortunately that is not a great number and was the lowest number of transaction since July 2010.  Unoffical numbers indicated that Teton County, Wyoming had 241 transactions in 2010 with a volume of $359 million.  That is the second lowest sales volume and transaction datat recorded in the past 8 years – only beating 2009. 

Comparing Year to Date December units and volume – 39% more transaction and 78% more volume when compared to 2009.  Sales volume is 3% below that of 2003 and 52% below the peak of 2007.  The increase in activity in the higher end is evident in the residential average sales price increasing 53% when compared to 2009.

Hopefully that was helpful.  For additional real estate information please feel free to contact Christy and Garth Gillespie – the Jackson Hole Experts.  We pride ourselves with working hard for buyers and sellers and having a secure grip on the market.  Feel free to visit our website – www.jacksonholeexperts.com or feel free to give us a call at 307-413-5243.

In today’s update we will explain the Teton Pines and Aspen’s locations for 2010. Both locations allow for short term rentals and are within the resort district. The location being on the Moose-Wilson makes it convenient for skiing in the winter and hiking in the summer. The Teton Pines offers a “resort” golf course, year round tennis, a summer pool and year round dining and bar. In the winter there is a wonderful Nordic center.

Teton Pines had a good year for real estate transactions. There were a total of 9 single family homes sales ranging from $950,000 for the desired Teton Pines Garden Homes to a high sale of $7,800,000 for a 7,300 sq. ft. estate home. The once popular Teton Pines Town Home on the other hand did not see a lot of activity. There are only 2 on the market but to see a year where no townhomes sold is a rarity. With the sale of a Garden Home below $1 million there is considerable price pressure on the townhomes. There are currently 22 active listings in Teton Pines. This is a great amount of inventory for buyers to choose from. We are predicting a strong sales season in Teton Pines.

The Aspens is located just north of Teton Pines and offers a mix of condos, townhomes and single family homes. Lake Creek carves its way through the neighborhood creating a very peaceful environment. The Aspens is frequented by moose throughout the seasons. Since January 1, 2010 there have been a total of 14 sales ranging from a low of $186,000 for a 760 sq. ft condo (Bank Sale) to a high of $1,293,700 for a wonderful single family log home (Gillespie Real Estate Team Listing). There are 2 current pending transactions – both below $500,000. As for Active inventory in the Aspen’s….there’s a lot of it. 23 listings – 13 condos (1, 2, 3 bedrooms), 6 townhomes (all located in the Pond’s and Cove) and 4 single family homes. The 6 townhomes in the Cove and Pond’s is an eye opener. The least expensive is $799,000 and the most expensive is $1,197,500. Hopefully there are a few buyers this winter and in 2011. Unfortunately I believe that the sellers are not quite realistic as to the current market.

With all the new snow and the best early ski season we have seen in years we are anticipating a very strong Holiday Season. Some of this visitor traffic should translate to an increase of real estate sales. If you would like additional information about the real estate market in Jackson Hole — please pick up the phone and give us a call – 877-739-8056. We are excited to answer any questions you may have. You are also welcome to visit us at www.jacksonholeexperts.com.