May 2011

We are seeing more signs of stabilization in Colorado with Foreclosures down 40% in April and 7 months straight as measured in the 12 largest counties. This gives a a pretty good trend in some regards but may be influenced by the delays caused by poor management of documentation at the banks. See the article here.

Foreclosures will still be high in Steamboat Springs in 2011 but buyer demand is meeting with banks that are increasingly more realistic and we are moving through them at a decent pace. This is also true for short sales as more of the banks price to the market to avoid foreclosure.  I had a good conversation with the Routt County Treasurer about a week ago and she is seeing Foreclosure activity level off some. You can search Steamboat

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Here is a list of the Weekly Solds for April 2011 here in Steamboat Springs with some of my thoughts/ inisghts, if you would like to know more on these or any other property just give me a call.  It pays to know what is going on and have a good basis for your valuation.  

4/1/11     1391 Morgan Ct. (Condo, 1,087 sq ft, 2 bd/2ba) Located in Villas at Walton Creek. Sold for $300,000  - About right for this unit in a nice complex for locals , part time retirees and front range people who don’t want to rent their unit. 

4/1/11     1575 Eagle Glenn Drive (Townhome,2,803 sq ft, 4 bd/4ba, 2 car garage) Located in Chadwick Place. Built in 2005, it sold for $1.74 million in September 2007. Sold for $986,000 – This is an excellent townhome with great mountain

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Living in Steamboat always gives you the opportunity to be surprised by nature. Whether it is the weather's surprising ability to snow 8 inches on Sunday and then raise to 70 by Thursday, give you those perfect bluebird spring skiing days or just surprise you with few unexpected early morning visitors outside your own front door. 

We live only about a mile from downtown and the warming weather from the past few weeks has brought a few different groups of animals right through our backyard. Driving home to the office on Monday i slowed and quickly took a few pictures of elk standing at the end of our drive. Waking early this morning we were surprised to see a mother bear and her cub playing in our backyard. My son Alden and daughter Neve really enjoyed

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   Trailhead Lodge at Wildhorse Meadows is now in the Foreclosure process. I have been watching this for a long time now and this is no surprise.  According to Routt County records Bank of America, the lead lender in the project, filed the notice on May 5th 2011 and showed an outstanding prinicpal balance of $41.7M. This covers approx 56 unsold units if my memory is correct. The banks filed a Notice of Election and Demand for Sale which is standard practice as the banks start the clock running towards foreclosure.  The sale date is initially scheduled for September 5th 2011 but several things can happen before then including the developer working a deal with the banks, the bank(s) selling the note to other investors, the date being extended as he

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  I have been hearing for about a week that the One Steamboat Place Forecloure has been extended again.  This is not uncommon and was confirmed today by the developer and Steamboat Pilot.  They have about $100M in outstanding loans to a group of several banks.  Typically the banks are jockeying for position based on their place in the capital structure and pushing the developer to pay down the loan balance to extend the loan.  The new deadline is May 25th and it wouldn't be a bit surprising to see it pushed out further.

 The developer generally looks to keep some level of postion in the property, get forebearance on some of the debt, better terms and an extension of the loan.  This type of loan is not a normal mortgage and must be renewed ever 1-3 years

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The Snow in Steamboat has never been deeper.  The late spring storms have brought the total snowfall in Steamboat Springs to its deepest ever, giving everyone the oppprtunity to keep their skis in the front door for a few weeks longer!  'Mike Gillespie, Colorado Snow Survey supervisor for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Denver, confirmed that the snow depth at the Tower measuring site stood at 180 inches, or 15 feet, setting a record for measured snow depths there that go back to the mid-1960s. The previous record was the 175-inch snow depth recorded on April 25, 1978.' Back on the ski mountain, 'Larry Pierce took a photo of the summit stake measuring 149 inches yesterday before any more snow fell overnight.' Pictures have been posted on the…