Vail Homes

As a member of the Christies Great Estates network, Sonnenalp Real Estate is privy to a great deal of high end real estate market news. According to a press release on January 23, 2008 entitled “The State of the High End Market”, things are going very well indeed - despite the evident slow down in the rest of the market. According to reports from Chisties Members:

Brown Harris Stevens in Manhattan has seen a 51% spike in the average price of condominiums.

According to Avram Goldman of Pacific Union, San Francisco is faring well in the north and south. The high end in San Francisco is strong and vibrant.

Charles Manger of Brown Harris Stevens, Hamptons and North Fork says that according to their database, 50 homes priced over $5 Million have either sold, gone to contract or had an offer accepted in the past 2 months.

Brown Harris Stevens in Palm Beach: Sales have remained steady with the number of single family homes sold increasing by 12% in 2007 (compared to 2006) and the average price of a single-family house has rizen nearly 16% in 2007 to $5.3 million.

The San Antonio market is phenomental according to Phyllis Browning, Phyllis Browning and Company. “We are experiencing multi-offers on residential properties, and there are buyers for $2 Million plus homes. In the last week of December and in the first week of January, our office closed two properties, each over $4 Million.”

Jeff Hyland, Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills: All our high ent properties ($10 million and above) are selling for more than they would have a year ago. We continue to have little inventory and any seller who does not sell today can easily wait another year. In the rarefied air of expensive properties, no one needs to sell until they get a price they are happy with. If any house were to drop twenty percent there would be a mad rush to purchase with people jumping over each other to get an acceptance. A property just came on the market at $85,000,000 on Friday and there have been 11 showings so far-two were mine. We just closed two week ago on the most expensive sale ever in Pacific Palisades at $16,000,000.

So……It seems that reports of the death of the real estate industry are a little blown out of proportion. We here in Vail’s upper end market are experiencing a truly excellent market with sales of 5 properties over $5,000 since January 1. Admittedly, the “sub prime” disaster is just exactly that: a disaster. So far the Vail Valley has been insulated from what is happening in other parts of the country and in lower income markets. Our real estate market continues to perform in a Blue Chip manner!

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If you’ve tried to drive to Vail (or home again) on any busy winter weekend, you know that traffic is a real issue. You’ve got to know this concern is becoming big time when the politicians start jumping onto the issue.

Under a proposed plan by Colorado State Senator Chris Romer (D-Denver), weekend skiers could be charged as much as $12 per one-way trip for using I-70 between the hours of 6:30 am and 8:30 am on Saturdays and Sundays. Nothing was published about timing of the return trip. Obviously all the details of the proposal have not seen the light of day. Romer says his plan could reduce “rush hours” traffic by 10%.

Romer’s plan also specifies that those who sign up to miss the rush hours would get a rebate check in the mail for $24 just for waiting out the traffic. It will be interesting to see how Romer plans to administer this angle.

Reaction, far from mixed, has been centered around the fear that skiers would “just say no” and stay home to watch football. Buzz Schleper, owner of Buzz’s Ski Shop in Vail Village: “It would kill the ski industry. You can’t tax skiers extra - they will just stop coming. We’d be the laughing stock of the entire ski industry”. Furthermore, there was no mention of how the revenues collected from this endeavor would be spent (assuming they didn’t all go to paying for the “rebates for those who signed up to miss the rush”). Note: I’ll be happy to sign up for that rebate every Saturday and Sunday from now on!

It’s my feeling that essentially turning I-70 into a toll road could be justified as long as 1) Everyone who used the highway paid a fee - truckers and folks just driving to Grandma’s house included - and 2) The collected funds were used to fund a new high speed rail system from DIA to Eagle County Airport. Only through biting the bullet and embracing the need for a new solution to the traffic problem are we ever going to get a handle on it.

Are you curious about all the construction going on in “The New Vail”? There are currently eight major construction projects in various stages of development that are continuing to change the face of our town and reinstate Vail’s position with the world’s finest and trendiest Winter/Summer resort communities. Vail Daily staff writer Edward Stoner has written an informative and concise recap of these current developments. You can read his article by clicking on this link:

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20080119/NEWS/855072051&SearchID=73306239883120

A truly dramatic landmark structure of incomparable quality and detail is now rising in an enchanting pine grove along over 160 feet of Gore Creek Frontage in the popular East Vail subdivision! The roof and windows are in and mechanical systems are being installed in this spectacular 1/2 duplex residence comprising 6,000 square feet, plus five bedrooms and five and 1/2 baths, a library, wine room, media room, huge, open game room and a private drive entrance off Bighorn Road. The construction process of this wonderful home has been painstaking. Every and detail is being thought out, pondered, tested and proven to be the very best before being installed into the home.

Entertaining in this masterpiece in any season will be pure pleasure. The large, casual dining room will be topped by a beamed ceiling and is located with the kitchen in the center of all the home’s action in keeping with the traditional ski home floor plan. The gourmet kitchen will be fitted with the highest quality finishes and designer appliances. The spacious living room will have a souring beamed and planked ceiling and a huge floor to ceiling rock fireplace. Grand, fluid spaces and wide doorways and stair cases create and airy ambience through out and walls of windows bring the thrilling light and views of the splendid, private site into every room.

Constructed on one of East Vail’s most spectacular streamside sites, the home offers Gold Medal trout fishing right outside the back door and the word famous winter and summer recreational opportunities of the Vail Valley are readily available within minutes of the home’s central location.

It’s not too late to customise this luxurious offering to meet your specific needs. Please contact John Nilsson today, for further details - 970-390-7600. Priced at $5,400,000.

The Colorado Department of Transportation is proposing to widen the shoulder of the west bound lane of I-70 just west of the East Vail exit to allow truckers a safer place to remove chains during winter months. Some residents in the Bald Mountain area of East Vail are afraid of negative effects from the potential “truck stop” that will be created in front of their homes. Use the following link:

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20080117/NEWS/245085176

to view the Vail Daily article on this issue.

It’s no secret that purchasing any real estate in the Upper Vail Valley takes a pretty strong pocket book. Indeed, we have some of the priciest real estate in the world here in our intimate little valley. It’s really important, therefore, to develop a good eye for value when searching for the property that’s “just right” for you and your family.

5111 Black Bear Lane in the popular East Vail area of the Town of Vail offers a tremendous value opportunity in a delightful single family home built in 1998 and occupied by one of the Valley’s best building contractors and his locally famous gardener wife. This charming and warm family home features 4 bedrooms, 5.5 baths in the main house plus a 1 Bedroom/1 Bath caretaker’s apartment over the spacious attached garage plus ample room for kid’s activities in the full finished basement. You will love the quiet kid and dog friendly neighborhood and a location that’s near to the free Town of Vail bus stop and the Vail Mountain School.

The spectacular gardens and water feature gracing the entry to the home have been designed for minimum maintenance and maximum impact. Inside you will find a fabulous chef’s delight of a kitchen, airy, spacious living areas with plenty of glass to let in the dramatic views, and a wonderful wine cellar. The home was recently one of the feature homes of the annual Vail Mountain School Homes Tour. At an asking price of $2,385,000 this home is by far the lowest priced single family residence in the East Vail area! You can view a slide show of this terrific residence at www.5111blackbearlane.com. Call me for further information!

According to a monthly report put out by Trevor Theelke of Land Title Guarantee, Eagle County real estate dollar volume remains 10% over 2006. Reporting on November, 2007 Eagle County Record activity, Trevor finds that total volume through November 2007, is just $42 Million shy of the record setting year of 2005, with 2.8 Billion in real estate sales. Year to date, Beaver Creek has more than doubled any other area dollar volume with over $527 Million in sales. Again, in November the high end market continues to be strong year to date with over 90 residential transactions over $4 Million, eight of those sales occurring this month. November’s highest dollar sale was a Strawberry Park residence closing at $10,550,000. Year-to-date the average sales price remains at over $1 million, ($1,086,159).

November Highlights:

* Average multi family home sold for $1,140,606

* Vail Village had an average sales price of $3,783,686

* Beaver Creek was the area with the highest dollar volume at $28,524,000

Please feel free to call me for a copy of Treavor’s report which includes in-depth statistical details of sales year-to-date broken down into individual Eagle Valley Subdivisions.

     Single Property URL presentations (Web published slide show presentations on individual real estate properties) have taken over the lion’s share of marketing investment on the West Coast. In fact, my investigation has shown me that these URL presentations are becoming the flagship marketing method in the San Diego/LA market places - replacing periodical ads as the “go to” primary source of real estate property introduction. And why not? A properly promoted Single Property URL can provide many times the information and visual stimulation than a single newspaper or magazine ad and once the URL is up and running its there 24/7 ready and available for anyone to access. I have recently recognized the effectiveness of this relatively new advertising vehicle and have designed and excellent, clean format for publishing URL slide shows of your real estate product. A few examples of these slide shows can be accessed at: www.5111blackbearlane.com, www.pilgrimdownshouse.com, www.83mccoyspringsct.com, www.872StrawberryParkRoad.com and www.696forestroad.com

     I have designed my URL program with the following concepts in mind:

     1. the format allows interested prospects “one-click” access. Other slide show presentations that operate as a subcategory of “aircraft carrier web sites” require the prospect to consciously call up the main web site, cursor through several layers of links and then consciously find the property of interest to click on. The doctrine of “keep-it-simple-stupid” demonstrates it’s obvious advantage here. By making it one click access, you run the least chance of your potential buyer loosing interest and going out for a cup of coffee instead of connecting to your property information.

     2. I have designed the site mechanics with one thing in mind: FOCUS. I think that what people want to see is a PHOTOGRAPH of the property in it’s best and clearest format. The viewing process is 2 step: a) look at the property in all it’s individual views, 2) then go to the copy and map location backup when your interest is stimulated for more information. I find that other individual property site formats that combine a lot of copy and fancy graphics on the same page as the photos ignore this principal of focus.

     3. The growing use and popularity of my URL websites has prompted me to offer this service to anyone who has a property here in the Vail/Eagle Valley - whether you are a customer for my real estate services or not.  Upon investigating my URL program, I think that you will agree that these sites offer the Eagle Valley property owner a miriad of benifits; from memorializing your home and it’s contents for insurance purposes or providing an easy presentation for your rental efforts, to simply showing Aunt Betty “the home in Vail”. 

      URL registration, Hosting, and the creation of the individual property presentation, (which is part of my service), is a relatively small percentage of the job. The real joy in developing these sites is in the production of the exceptionally high quality photographs you require (and should require) and processing of each photograph to create the best possible quality in final product exposure and color.  It is very seldom that a photograph is acceptable to me as it comes out of the camera.   99% need proper tweaking before they are allowed on a site.  This has become an art form for me and one that gives me a great deal of satisfaction.

      I am a Broker of premium real estate properties first and foremost and student of photographic art as a sideline. The only thing that makes this worth my time is that I LIKE TO DO IT and it helps to defray the cost of new equipment.   I provide this product for my listing clients as a part of my marketing expense as I feel that in order to properly market property, I feel I have to pull out the stops and provide the very best, most up to date and effective processes.  By providing this service to my non-real estate related friends, I can increase the value of this product to everyone.  If you’d like to hear more about a Single Property URL website for your area property, please e-mail me or give me a call at 970-390-7600.  I’ll be happy to go over rates and scheduling with you.

John Nilsson, CCIM, CRS
Sonnenalp Real Estate 970-390-7600

TO VIEW MY CURRENT LISTINGS CLICK:

www.5111BlackBearLane.com
www.187LimeParkDrive.com

www.373StrawberryParkRoad.com

www.211MainMinturn.com

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