Maybe not exactly but Wyoming ranked 5th for Distaster Resistant real estate locations from the MSN real estate site:

Here’s the link:  http://realestate.msn.com/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=25641997&GT1=35006 

Here’s what they had to say about Wyoming and Jackson Hole:

Wyoming

Want to live tax-free, but don’t want to deal with hurricanes? Welcome to Wyoming, where individual and corporate taxes are as nonexistent as oceans and gulf currents. Residents may wonder how their state can be considered so safe when it was declared a disaster area in July after a serious bout of flooding. Simple: With only eight major disasters declared since FEMA started keeping tabs back in 1953, the least-populous state (roughly 540,000, or fewer than in Tucson, Ariz., alone) takes calamities including floods, tornadoes and winter storms in stride. With all that cash savings and little worry about impending doom, Wyoming newcomers should feel free to splurge on such homes as Sotheby’s $7 million, four-bedroom, seven-acre spread in Jackson Hole with a stone fireplace, infinity-edge outdoor hot tub, heated concrete floors, six-car garage, guest house and a 30-foot window wall with a view of the Tetons.

All I can say is somehow Utah beat us?  I beg to differ!

Jackson Hole Q1 Real Estate Results

Today at Sotheby’s International Realty – Jackson Hole Real Estate Brokerage we sent out this informative newletter to out client base.  It is a very good article about recent active in the Jackson Hole housing market.  I think you will find it very helpful in understanding what is currently happening….

With things a bit quieter here now that Jackson Hole Mountain Resort has successfully closed out the ski season, Sotheby’s International Realty is studying recent real estate activity and preparing for what by recent indications could be a hot summer selling season. Click for more

So far this year data from the Teton County Multiple List Service reports an upward trend in real estate sales in Jackson Hole. In March, for example, unit volume was up 170 percent suggesting increased buyer demand.

Looking at entire first quarter of 2010, dollar sales volume rose 88% percent over the same period in 2009 according to our analysis of the market and MLS data. Interestingly, twenty-five sales were for properties of more than $1 million, versus only 11 in the first quarter of last year. This could be read as a sign that though there are still excellent values to be found, some buyers see current prices as true bargains and are taking action and the lower end of the market is beginning to stabilize.

Certainly proper pricing has played a key role in getting the market back on track. Our market-watch committee meets each week to review pricing of the latest pending sales, closed sales, current inventory and new listings. The committee reports its findings at our weekly sales meetings.

While the lines on the graph are heading in the right direction, we continue to increase our sales and marketing efforts keeping us on top of the latest trends with increased e-marketing as well as creative print advertising.

Our overall expertise as well as in specific market areas around the valley such as the Town of Jackson, Shooting Star, Teton Pines, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Hotel Terra, north of town, in eastern Idaho, etc. – allows us to closely monitor the pulse of the daily market activity and helps us deliver exceptional service to our clients.

Initiatives like this appear to be working for Sotheby’s and its clients. In Q1 of 2010, Sotheby’s Jackson Hole Brokerage accounted for more than 70 percent of the total dollar volume in the Teton County.

It has been a while since this site has been updated – we are sorry. The Jackson Hole Experts – Christy and Garth Gillespie of Sotheby’s International Realty – have been extremely busy over the past 4 months and unfortunately our Blog fell silent.

We are excited about getting back into posting current information about Jackson Hole and the Jackson Hole Real Estate Market. 2009 has been a challenging real estate climate nationally and locally. Financing continues to be a struggle and declining property and home values are creating a burden for many homeowners. We understand these issues and hope to cover topics within our blog that offer solutions and opportunities.

In our first Blog back we want to bring people back up to speed on the current market statistics. We will be updating the information soon as our last current review of the market is thru October 2009. Year to Date there have been a total of 152 closings with a sales volume of $182 million as reported by Teton Board of Realtors (TBOR) MLS system. When comparing this information to 2008 unit volume was down 41% and down 70% from 2007. Sales volume is down 58% from 2008 and 73% from 2007. Positive news is that in October we had 29 closings which was the high for 2009 and also in October we saw 7 sales over $2 million.

Christy and I believe that Sotheby’s International Realty – Jackson Hole Brokerage offers our customers the best opportunity for success. If you are a seller, hands down there is nobody in Teton County that can offer you so many marketing opportunities and exposure to the most buyers. For buyers – the same can be said – we work extremely hard in the office to educate each other on the most up to date statistics which offers our sellers the most educated price analysis. This in turn offers a buyer the opportunity to look at properties that are priced correctly for the market. We have incredible tools for both Buyers and Sellers as too how the real estate process works in Jackson Hole.

The statistics uphold our thoughts above. In October alone, Sotheby’s was involved with 23 transaction sides (a transaction = 2 sides a buyer and a seller). This equaled a 62% market share. Year to date Sotheby’s has sold 72 properties and has assisted 61 buyers complete a transaction. This equals 133 transaction sides or 55% market share. These are fantastic numbers.

As for Christy and Garth Gillespie – we continue to work extremely hard to produce results for our sellers. We have sold 8 listings so far in 2009 and have been involved in 14 transaction sides. When compared to years past we are lagging our average but we are proud of our efforts and continue to learn more about our market every day.

If you would like additional information, please feel free to call us at 307-413-5243 or email me at garth.gillespie@sothebyshomes.com. Thanks for visiting our site and we hope you stop by again real soon.

Searching For Jackson Hole Real Estate Online? A lot of you are looking on www.Sothebyshomes.com/jacksonhole. Information we just gathered from Sotheby’s International Realty tells the story. There seems to be a lot of people looking on line at property and the number is increasing. At www.sothebyshomes.com/jacksonhole we had 43,000 page visits and 11,785 listings were viewed! The average visit per page was about 36 seconds. The top searches included – Jackson Hole Real Estate, Sotheby’s Jackson Hole, Sothebys Jackson Hole, Real Estate Jackson Hole and Sotheby’s real estate. Those searches tell me that the public knows where to look for Jackson Hole real estate information – Sotheby’s! Google was the most used search engine.

When looking at our Company site www.sothebyshomes.com there were 244,000 site visits with 1,757,659 page views. The interesting statistic here is that the average visit length was about 10 minutes. Consumers from 173 countries and 6 six continents visited the site — now that is an International company! The top 5 user countries were – US, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia.

Cool information. If you are a seller this is very important information. Jackson Hole real estate is no longer a “local” market and to be honest it has not been one for 10 years. Here at Sotheby’s – Jackson Hole Brokerage we have the best agents with the most experience yet we are all local! Our competition will talk about local company with some exposure to the nation and international clients but no one can reach the customer base that Sotheby’s International Realty can. Christy and I feel honored to be here and we utilize the skills, the knowledge and the history many of the agents at Sotheby’s have to offer.

To know more about the Jacksonholeexperts please call Christy and Garth Gillespie at 877-739-8056.

Aspens - Wilson Wyoming

In local Jackson Hole mortgage news we like to ask the “mortgage expert” T.R. Pierce at the Bank of Jackson Hole. Below is the banks current rates and report:

Conforming rates are unchanged this morning as Wall Street responds very positively to Wells Fargo’s announcement that it expects to report a profit of $3 billion for the first quarter. In other positive news… initial jobless claims fell last week and the trade deficit was $25.97 billion in February compared to $36 billion the previous month. This represented a 28.3% decrease in imports and was the lowest trade gap since November 1999.
BANK OF JACKSON HOLE
Residential Mortgage Rates for April 9, 2009

The following rates are thirty (30) day quotes for fully documented, owner-occupied and/or second home loans for borrowers with a minimum credit score of 700 which feature a one (1%) percent loan origination fee and the escrow of taxes & insurance.
PLEASE NOTE THAT CONFORMING LOAN AMOUNTS OVER $417,000 TO $625,500

ARE AVAILABLE AT HIGHER INTEREST RATES THAN INDICATED BELOW.
PROGRAM CONFORMING
(Loans to $417,000)
JUMBO
(Loans over 417,000)
30 Year Fixed
4.500%
7.875%
15 Year Fixed
4.375%
6.875%
10/1 ARM
5.000%
7.875%
7/1 ARM
4.625%
5.000%
5/1 ARM
4.125%
4.750%
3/1 ARM
4.875%
6.625%
30 YEAR FIXED RATE FHA LOANS TO $693,750: 5.000%
PRIME RATE: 3.250%
ONE YEAR LIBOR RATE: 1.951%

These are some great rates and it is an incredible time for Jackson Hole residents to consider making a purchase, refinancing or moving up in the housing market. The low end market – under $500,000 – still needs to readjust some pricing so if you are in this category please call us for a free listing presentation from the JacksonHoleExperts. In many ways there has never been a better time to list your property for current market value as most of the market has mispriced their properties. To learn more….call us toll free at 877-739-8056.

Christy and Garth Gillespie, Jackson Hole real estate associates for Sotheby’s International Realty would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter. We are hoping for some warmer weather here in Jackson Hole as we still have about 2 feet of snow on the ground. Thanks for visiting the Jackson Hole real estate blog – Jackson Hole Experts-

We woke up this morning to good news on Wall Street as reaction to the new “Toxic Asset” program was cheered by traders with big movement in the financial sector. Wall Street is also reacting to better than expected housing data. The interesting stat to notice is that this is the first time housing sales and median price both increased at the same time since May 2008.

What about the Jackson Hole real estate market? Well, so far the month of March could be labeled the “Month of Showings”. Activity has been quite strong with buyers looking at property but not yet pulling out their wallets. The news out of the federal government is great for home buyers as mortgage rates are very low, there are extremely favorable tax credits for first time home buyers and financing is becoming a little easier to find. All of this should add up to some transactions but currently we are waiting. Prices in Jackson Hole are still holding fairly strong but we are seeing some movement just not an overall pattern.

Data includes: Current inventory staying about the same since March 3rd with a slight increase (3%) to 732 listings. The big increase came into the residential market with an additional 16 listings. There have been a total of 45 price reductions since the start of March. As for buying activity — slow go. Only 1 confirmed pending transaction in March — Aspen’s Condo 2B/2B priced at $595,000.

For additional real estate information on Jackson Hole -please feel free to email or call us at 877-739-8056. Christy and Garth Gillespie, Sotheby’s International Realty, are ready to answer any questions.

Market Update – Jackson, Wyoming
April 22, 2008

Temperature at the Jackson Hole Airport = 39 degrees! Brrrrrrrr…..
Yes as you read the headline it was 39 degrees on April 22, 2008. This would not be such news but those of us in Jackson Hole have had just about enough winter. We finally had some warmer weather during the weekend to melt some valley snow but overall this has been the spring that just has not started yet. Last year – a warm dry year – was on the other end of the spectrum as most of us were concerned about drought and wildfires. This year we are starting to be worried about when the tulips are going to bloom.

March came and went and there is not a lot to talk about. For the third straight month the number of transactions has not crested 25! In March, there were a total of 22 transactions with a closed sales volume of $38.5 million. To illustrate the slow transaction data we only have to look at the number of transactions during the previous 3 years: 2007 – 60, 2006 – 53 and 2005 – 68.

Of the 22 transactions in March of 2008 – 18 were single family homes and 3 were vacant lots. Highlights are 1. A home in Tucker Ranch sold for $8,000,000 2. There were 2 sales in Teton Village over $3 million and 3. There were 9 sales in the Town of Jackson (mostly condos and townhomes).

There are currently a total of 55 Pending transactions with a total Listing Volume of $133 million. The average list price being $2,425,944. There are 3 transactions that are priced over $10 million!

In real estate news – The Teton County Planning Commission voted 3-1 to advise the Teton County Commissioners to enact a freeze on subdivisions and zone changes for parcels of 20 acres or more.

If you would like information on:

Teton County, Idaho – please visit: www.tetonvalleyexperts.com
Jackson Hole, Wyoming – please visit: www.jacksonholeexperts.com

April 21, 2008 — 4:00 P.M. — Temperature at the Jackson Hole Airport = 28 degrees!  Brrrrrrrr…..

Yes if you read the headline it is 28 degrees.  This would not be such news but those of us in Jackson Hole have had just about enough winter.  We finally had some warmer weather during the weekend to melt some valley snow but overall this has been the spring that just has not started yet.  Last year – a warm dry year – was on the other end of the spectrum as most of us were concerned about drought and wildfires.  This year we are starting to be worried about when the tulips are going to bloom.  Last year I planted my garden on March 21st.  This year I planted it on Saturday – April 19th.  This was the earliest I could possibly put a shovel into the ground.  I planted Spinach, Beets, Carrots, Kohlrabi, Kale, and Chard for those who care.

Snow King Resort is still completely snow covered.  Yes I also skied on Saturday.  Top to Bottom.  Pretty good slush/corn skiing.  One of the few benefits of the cold spring.  There should be some excellent skiing to do in the National Park – all the way through May!  Fishing on the other hand could be a different story.  So far reports are fair unless we get some warm weather and then it seems to pick up.  Today would be down right freezing.

Real Estate wise Jackson Hole seems to take a break during Spring Break (2 weeks).  The offices of Sotheby’s International Realty were quiet during the break but we did see a resurgence of agents today in the office.  Activity could be described as surprising steady.  There are a total of 55 Pending transactions with a total Listing Volume of $133 million.  The average list price being $2,425,944.  There are 3 transactions that are priced over $10 million!  Overall Christy and I see a lot of inventory in almost all segments.  There are good buys in just about all segments with the exception of the Westbank inventory.  The major void in the Westbank area (South and North of Wilson) happens in the price range from $800,000 to $2,500,000.  Even this area has a few available offerings that could be considered rare.

On real estate news – The Teton County Planning Commission voted 3-1 to advise the Teton County Commissioners to enact a freeze on subdivisions and zone changes for parcels of 20 acres or more.  An exception to the suggestion is Teton Meadows which received an exception to the moratorium.  Teton Meadows is looking to change the complete dynamic of the South Park area with a gross up zone asking for 500 homes (most of which are under the "affordable" categorization).  Unfortunately the effects of this decision could change Jackson for ever so in my eyes the only solution for the Teton County Commissioners to to deny this development.  As seen in the recent news and probably the reasoning behind the moratorium is that there is still a lot of land available to develop so the scare technique that Teton Meadows is using is not the case.  There are a lot of developments that could offer affordable housing and most of these are in better locations than the rural character of South Park. 

There was a great letter to the Editor in the Jackson Hole News and Guide in the April 16th edition written by Dale Kaplan.  She suggests the Town of Jackson explore the idea of moving the Teton County Fair Grounds to make room for a dense, yet sensible residential development in the location of the Fairgrounds.  I have thought about this many times – Dale beat me to the punch.  If we are going to force dense development upon the valley the Fair Grounds make the most sense.  It could be the second heart of Jackson with multiple stories – commercial, retail and residential all with in walking distance of Snow King, the Town of Jackson, Cache Creek.  Minimal car traffic.  I believe it is time we start to explore these issues instead of jamming 500 homes in an area that should see 50.

I hope you enjoyed this entry from the Jackson Hole Real Estate and Community News Blog.  If you would like addtional information on Jackson Hole please feel free to email or call.  For Real Estate News check out www.JacksonHoleExperts.com.