INVENTORY OVERHANG

Friday, February 11, 2011

After hearing so much recently about the threat of inventory overhang potentially doing further harm to the nationwide housing market, I took a look at the inventory situation here in the Vail Valley. 

So far we seem to be holding up pretty well ... further proof of the axiom that all real estate is "local".

TOTAL # of ACTIVE LISTINGS (RESIDENTIAL and LAND) AS OF:

December 2010:  1,720  ... (2010 high = 2,090)
December 2009:  1,899  ... (2009 high = 2,208)
December 2008:  1,974

---------------
Eagle County is really a tale of two "cities", so to speak, only here it's divided into the resort communities "up-valley" and the locals' communities "down-valley".  There is more softness in the down-valley communities where sales are being made, for sure, but foreclosure rates have climbed significantly.  Even with that startling statement, Eagle County saw a total of 248 homes foreclosed countywide in 2010, out its estimated 23,000 homes  ... about 1/100 of the inventory.

And, in a bit of a silver lining to the foreclosure story ... lower prices and short sale opportunities down-valley are enabling young people and young families -- who were in boom years shut out of the market -- to purchase homes and get off the "renting" treadmill.