strong and turn this economy around!

ker Lumber site. Plus the new Holiday Inn going up. Good news. The US has arguably the strongest stock market in the world. Sounds good. Let's make 2012

Housing starts are up which puts people to work. Mostly apartments, which may be true here in Durango as well, with Jerry and Amils project at the old Bo

l. Sounds like good news.

Foreclosures are down steeply at 28 percent in Colorado year-over-year with all counties surveyed reporting large decreases in foreclosure filings as wel

uses might rent for, and the price to income ratio which measures house prices relative to average incomes. We may see another 2.5% decline on a national

ing its not a bad time to buy for those with solid financials.

level through 2012 and hit a 'true bottom' next year but as the economy continues to press forward sending interest rates up next year, analysts are say

Today there is talk that we have really reached 'the bottom' of the housing market as price-to-rent ratio which measures house prices relative to what ho

Outside Magazine awards Durango with its prestigious "Life is Better
Here" award in the October issue. Durango sits in a top-10 spot in the
article giving credence to what locals already know....that we live in
the most awesome place in the world. This sentiment was reflected in
high no-vacancy rates at area hotels this summer that reported almost 95
percent occupancy rates, a very high average for the industry.





http://ping.fm/NjG3d
or 970-375-3232

Policom, an independent economic research firm specializing in local and
state economies, did an analysis that ranked Durango No. 1 out of 576
micropolitan areas studied. Click the link to read the article:
http://ping.fm/vMD1o're-small-but-No-1

Denver 2nd lowest for housing declines

The Denver-area's housing market fell 14.3 percent from its "peak to
trough," less than half of the overall decline for the 20 cities tracked
in the closely watched S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released
today.

As previously reported by InsideRealEstateNews
, the Denver market statistic area narrowly avoided hitting a double
dip in housing prices in March, which was the fate of 12 of the 20
cities tracked by Case-Shiller.

However, the report also shows that homes in the 20 cities, overall lost
an average of 33.1 percent from their peaks to low-point. Only Dallas,
with an 11.2 percent decline from the peak to the bottom, showed less of
a drop than Denver. In March, Denver was down 14.1 percent from its
peak, while Dallas was down 10.7 percent.

Denver peak heading to 5-year anniversary

Denver hit its peak in August 2006, and hit the trough in February 2009.
Other cities peaked in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

And its peak, Denver was up 40.3 percent from January 2000. By contrast,
Las Vegas was up 134.8 percent and Phoenix was up 127.4 percent. Miami
showed the largest gain, rising by 180.9 percent at its peak, set in
December 2006.

But, as they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Miami is down 51.1 percent from its peak, Las Vegas is down 58.6
percent, and Phoenix is down 55.9 percent from its peak.

"Denver's boom wasn't as big, and its bust wasn't as painful," said Jeff
Thredgold, corporate economist for Vectra Bank Colorado. "Denver did not
participate in the boom of 2006 and 2007, like a lot of other markets,
so it is not having the substantial declines as other markets. Denver is
not correcting as much. Denver is not as much pain as other housing
markets. In Las Vegas, for example, 75 percent of the homes are under
water. That is real pain."

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com.







http://ping.fm/83i9y

Durango named 'A Best Place to Live' by Men's Journal. The April issue of the popular men's magazine hits newsstands Friday. Our boy Jeremy, from Pine Needle, is features in the article as well. 18 towns were selected as having 'mastered the art of living well in the 21st century by prioritizing localism, sustainability and conservation'. Very cool.

At Prudential we are constantly working to better understand the business. A few years ago now, we got some software to set-up and track showings. This allows us to looks at such things as what price range is seeing more activity, to see how many showings it takes to sell a home, compare year to year and so on. The value to the client is that you price appropriately, gauge how long it should take to sell and how many showings, etc.

Here's what we discussed yesterday at our sales meeting: for the same period as last year, between 1/1 and 2/15, showing activity is up a around 10%. That's all good but the surprising stat is that the number of those showings that Closed or are under contract is up 170%. Wow. It confirms what the real estate community is feeling, that its getting a little better out there and that we're probably hitting the 'real' bottom of the market. It also is showing that the number of showings it takes to get a home under contract has been cut in half which signifies that we're better pricing properties. Curiously, days-on-market remains the same at about 250 which we may attribute to some stagnant properties that have been lingering on the market for a long time.

So, the stock market continues to move forward, new housing starts we're the best in january that they've been in 20 months and the housing market is starting to show signs of life.

Good stuff but I'm not nearly busy enough, so let's chat and see if we can take advantage of some of these REO properties.

Cheers, Seb

Good News/Bad News: There are some awesome deals right now in Durango but its due to increasing foreclosures. Good time to buy.

According to Richard W from CU's Leeds School of Business, once again Colorado is late to go into the economic toilet and late to climb out. Construction being the brunt of the problem. In the last decade we've added 800,000 people and zero net jobs created. Still, we are seeing solid signs that Colorado is starting its recovery.