Spring Sprung and We Were Far Flung

Wow, some spring!  It snowed almost every day.  I'm not kidding.  Here's a photo from our office on May 19th.

And because Durango's weather is like that sometimes in the spring, it's the one time of year that we try to get out of town and go places like:



The Brittish Virgin Islands



The Colorado River

Boca Grande, Florida

Sand Key, Florida

Just thought I'd share a few of our off-season adventures with you.  Now you know why it's taken so long for us to update this blog.  The real estate market was notably, and not surprisingly rough for a couple of years, and our travel was limited.  We had some make-up work to do, promises to be kept to the kids for trips that had been postponed.  And the market has contributed it's part.  In fact, it's been my best year in the business, so far...

What does that say about the market?  Well, though I'd like to claim that I'm some kind of real estate savant, and that all of my hard work and effort pays dividends, I think our ability to do a little more traveling has more to do with the fact that pricing coupled with interest rate affordability has inspired more sales than we've seen in many years.  In fact, we've been saying that much of the inventory is going to go away and that there will be little left it it's place except higher prices once that happens.  Well, it's happening.  And with that, I give you our annual real estate forecast from the Wells Group.  It's been eleven years since the Wells Group began sharing their in-house research and analysis with their customers, and this year we've added some videos from area experts to really spice it up.  (Yours truly even has a cameo).  Follow the link here if you're interested in the forecast:

Wells Group 2011 Forecast

The password is:  knowledge

If you blow it up to a screen size image by using the full-screen icon on the bottom right of the movie, it'll be a lot easier to see the charts and pause on those that are of most interest to you.  I'm happy to provide the underlying analysis for any of the information you see herein.

Speaking of travel, it's easier to get here now.  American Airlines now flies directly from Dallas.  You read that right.  Since Texas has reemerged as one of our most dominant markets (they were hurt far less by the recent economy than most of our other markets), we're expecting direct flights from Dallas to have any even greater impact on our market.  I'd estimate it we'll have 15% higher sales in 2012 with this successful flight in place.  We've seen this round-trip ticket listed for as low as $350. 

Check their rates  out here:

http://www.aa.com/homePage.do

Now United, Frontier, American West and American Airlines fly into Durango.

In other good news, Men's Journal Magazine named Durango one of it's "Most Liveable Cities and Towns in America" recently.  Check out the link here:

http://www.mensjournal.com/in-the-april-issue-jake-gyllenhaal

Durango is also featured in the May, 2011 edition of Bike Magazine seen here:

http://www.bikemag.com/magazine/may-2011/

I have a PDF of the Bike Magazine article if you're interested.

Summer just started here.  We really couldn't wait, never can.  It's by far our favorite time of year.  See our posting last year about this time when we listed the "Top 10 Things to do in Durango in the Summer."  Here's a link for your convenience:

http://wellsgroupmountainresort.blogspot.com/2010/06/top-10-things-to-do-in-durango-during.html

The nicest homesite in Two Dogs, Durango’s premier mountain luxury community. 9 acres, Elbert Creek runs through it, views of Electra Lake, 3 distinct and exceptionally buildable homesites:

http://cren.fnismls.com/publink/default.aspx?GUID=bd253455-e997-44d0-b869-d1904d65bdae&Report=Yes

The finest luxury home we’ve ever seen in the market at the lowest price per foot we’ve ever seen for luxury in the market ($180/foot). Already priced at $1.5 million under actual construction costs. Views of the Needles, Engineer and Spud Mountains. 3 acres, backs National Forest:

http://cren.fnismls.com/publink/default.aspx?GUID=5be7810e-3d28-45bf-b037-21863767f6e3&Report=Yes

Lastly, here’s a timely article from the Wall Street Journal titled, “Why It’s Time to Buy.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576361522020024248.html


Summer in Colorado in general is pretty extraordinary.  We like to get out around the state to check-out the scenery.  Here are some photos we took within driving distance over the last few weekends.  We'll be happy to help you find any of these places:

Have a great summer!