Not Only Skiers are Falling in Aspen and Jackson Hole
February 13th, 2009Posted in Skiing Everywhere
Two new confirmations crossed my computer screen today about the overdue bursting of the real estate markets in places people thought would be immune- Aspen and Jackson Hole. On Wednesday the Wall Street Journal’s wealth reporter posted that Pitkin County (home of Aspen) saw real estate transactions fall by 40% last year and the dollar volume dropped by 46%. Really startling was the closure of the Sotheby’s International Realty office due to revenue shortfalls and the inability to cut back expenses enough.
In Jackson, the Jackson Hole Real Estate Blog reported on the same day that sales of single family homes fell by nearly 50%, while investment properties, including townhomes and condos, fell by more than 50%.
For years I’ve heard people tell me here in the Teton Valley that the demand was so great, from people wanting to move here, but who couldn’t afford Jackson prices, that we’d never see a depressed real estate market. Those folks are pretty quiet these days. Aspen and Jackson thought they were immune to real estate declines because there was so little available land and demand was so strong from deep pocketed people who had to have a home in these towns. I was born in a part of New York State that was once a hot spot for affluent New Yorker City folks to vacation in and to buy summer homes. By the time I was born, that era was over and the region was becoming economically depressed. I am sure that when my parents were young, everyone thought the good times there would never end either. They always do.
Leave a Comment