Greetings,

Some buyers are getting cautious because they don't feel quite as wealthy as they were on January 1st of this year. The number of transactions since January 1st is down 29% through July as compared to the same period in 2021. However, the dollar amount of sales is only down 8% for the same period. We have also seen regular dropping of asking prices for several months generally in the 10% range of price adjustment. I think part of the reason sales are still reasonably strong is two-fold. One, there is still a low supply of real estate nationally and buyers may see real estate as a safer bet than the stock market. Secondly, resort real estate brings with it a pleasure of use. Covid's made people think about what is important in their lives and how they want to spend their time. The dollar amount of sales through the first seven months of 2022 was $708.72 million and the number of sales was 382 for the same period. Please click here for the July Telluride Consulting real estate report.

Colorado resorts are coveted nationally for their recreation, healthy lifestyle and beauty. When buyers think of these resorts, they think about their family and spending more time with them and their friends. Telluride has been well placed with a combination of beauty and remoteness which translated to safety and quality of life. Those factors have not changed while the financial markets have become somewhat riskier. With sellers adjusting their prices somewhat and buyers still feeling good about the safety of their real estate investments, I think 2022 will continue to have very good sales. The higher-end markets do price out some buyers, but now they might be letting some of those buyers back in. August sales are off to a very good start. 

National Real Estate Perspectives: Sales in July were at their weakest level since May 2020, which was an anomaly because of the pandemic lockdown. Setting that aside, sales last month were the weakest since November 2015. The multifamily sector needs to add 4.3 million apartments by 2035. Currently, the U.S. rental market is 600,000 short of demand with construction slowing down. Personally, I think the construction industry is still cautious due to how badly the Great Recession was for them. Remember that half of all the homes that are built every year are by contractors who build twenty homes or less per year. 

Eight out of ten markets where prices have risen the fastest this year are in Florida. However, the number one city/area in the U.S. where prices rose the most is the Fayetteville/Springdale/Rogers, Arkansas corridor where prices have risen 31.9% this year. Think about how many employees Walmart has in that area. Lastly, Florida also leads the nation in international buyers having captured 24% of all U.S. international buyers in 2021. California is a distant second at 11%. 

Western U.S. Ski Resorts:  

Aspen: The number of Aspen home sales this year through July is just over 50 compared to 140 home sales in 2021 for the same period. 

Vail (Eagle County) saw the dollar amount of sales down 38% for July as compared to July last year. Transactions were down 35% for the same period. 

Steamboat: The number of sales in Routt County were down 30+% as compared to July last year. Dollar sales were almost the same for the same period. 

Jackson Hole: Both the overall number of sales and dollar volume were down 20% and 6% respectively for July. 

This month’s Visual Capitalist: This is an interesting look at where the next 1,000 babies will be born globally. Basically, that will tell you where the likely economic growth will be in the future and the challenges that go with that. In reverse, the lack of babies in some countries will create other problems. Maybe think about investments that your grand children will love you for. Read More Here:  

Top Ten Fun Facts Mostly about Real Estate: 

1. Construction of new homes fell more than expected to the lowest level in over a year, a 9.6% decrease from the month before and down 8.1% YoY.  
2. Before Covid-19, the cost to ship a 40-foot container from Shanghai to the Port of L.A. was slightly below $2,000. Since then the price peaked at slightly above $12,000 by late 2021 and is now just below $7,000. 
3. Later this year, the global population is expected to reach eight billion people. The United Nation is projecting that date to be November 15th. When I was born in 1950, the global population was about 2.5 billion and the U.S. population that year was about 150 million. Today it is about 340 million. 
4. Vacant land sales last year in the U.S. rose faster than any other type of commercial or residential sales last year. I heard they aren’t making any more.  
5. In July, the unemployment rate fell from 3.6% to 3.5%, tying a 52-year low. 
6. China’s home sales fell 39.7% in July from the same period last year. 
7. A record 303,000 number of hikers scaled a 14,000-foot peak in Colorado in 2020. That number fell by 110,000 last year. I guess a lot of people went back to work or said…been there done that. 
8. The National Association of REALTORS® said it would take over ten years for the construction industry to build the current deficit of 5.5 million homes. 
9. Credit card debt has increased at a faster clip in more than twenty years. My Depression era parents would not approve. 
10. In the last ten years, over 9,000 real estate technology companies have been created. Some of them are helpful and some are creepy. 

Colorado Legislation and Fraud Alerts: This month we want share with you two items. First is a Colorado legislative House Bill 1137 that limits ability for HOA to impose fines for covenant violations and/or foreclosure on delinquent owners. https://frascona.com/massive-changes-coming-to-colorado-homeowner-association-law/

The second: Real estate wire fraud is up 40% nationwide this year. Always work with a fully insured professional title company when sending or receiving money for your real estate transaction. When you get an email giving you wiring instructions, always, always call the title company you are working with to verify the wire instructions. Don’t ever just send money without calling your title company and your real estate broker first. These fraudsters get your money out of the country really fast and it’s usually gone forever. These real estate wire frauds are now exceeding a billion dollars a month. Be careful. 

Quoted in the Press: We are most grateful for having our market information quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the Denver Post, the Colorado Sun newspaper, the Telluride Daily Planet, The Aspen Times newspaper and numerous other local newspapers all across Colorado. Thank you!     

As always, thank you for taking time to read the Tellugram. If you have any questions as a seller, buyer or just curious reader, we’ll do our best to give you a straightforward answer. Contact us at George@TheHarveyTeam.net or on George’s cell phone number 970-729-0111. 

Quote: "If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over" – John Wooden 

Best to you and your family,

George Harvey, Jr.