Real estate showings increase

Thursday, April 02, 2009

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo. – Teton County real estate showings are on the rise as 20-percent price reductions and low interest rates have finally lured buyers out of the shadows.
    And though some buyers are finding bargains, agents say prices might need to go even lower before the industry does brisk business again.
    “We’re seeing a little bit of action, and it’s been very slow, but I think that’s because people have had very unrealistic expectations of what their properties are worth,” Rare Properties owner Rick Armstrong said. “People are realizing that they have to offer value, otherwise the buyers are just going to sit on the sidelines and wait until they see some value.”
    David Viehman at Jackson Hole Real Estate and Appraisal said at the present moment, very little of the market is truly priced to sell.
    “We have been seeing more buyers, but it doesn’t necessarily equate into actual contracts,” Viehman said in a telephone message. “Buyers are out there making low-ball offers but sellers don’t seem to want to come off of their high-dollar mark.
About 5 percent are priced to sell, the other 95 percent just aren’t going to give up their equity.”
    Armstrong thinks the stalemate will be broken, but said it is too early to tell when.
    “I have been telling my clients to stay in touch with us and pay attention because there is value coming,” he said. “I think there are going to be some great values for buyers, and we haven’t seen that since 2001.”
    As more “value properties” sell, more pressure will be put on other sellers to lower their price as well, Armstrong said.
    Jeff Ward, an associate broker at Teton Village Realty, said that sellers were reluctant to admit a loss in value of their property, which most agents consider a market “correction,” not a market drop.
    After losing 40 percent of their value in the stock market, a 20 percent or 30 percent property value “correction” seems less severe to those sellers.
    Though it is difficult for someone who could have sold a home for more than $1 million in 2007 to sell below $800,000 now, it has happened. Ward said one seller with a home listed at $1.2 million to $1.3 million before the crash turned down an offer, then, of $890,000. Now the property is listed at $869,000.
    A “buyer’s market” such as this gives homebuyers an opportunity to shop around to find the right property, or perhaps make an offer that a motivated seller is willing to entertain.
    Cindy Parker, an area bookstore owner, is an experienced house-buyer. In 2007, she bought a house that needed improvement work, which she said was probably the only reason it was on the market long enough for her to get a contract. Most properties she liked back then would go under contract within days or hours of hitting the market.
    After living in the fixer-upper for a year and a half, she wanted to move into a condo and decided to check out the market. She started looking in January, and found that sellers’ agents were bending over backwards to accommodate her.
    She shopped for a couple of months, found exactly what she wanted, and closed on it with her first offer.
    Success stories like Parker’s are piquing the interest of buyers who once thought the Jackson Hole market had “passed them by,” Ward said. They are now watching alertly because they “don’t want to miss the lower interest rates and the opportunity to buy a house at these really reduced prices,” he said.
    Local residents who didn’t suffer too much damage in the recent stock market decline are now in a good position to buy. The other lurking demographic is composed of investors known by some as “bottom feeders,” looking to make a little cash off the situation.
    But the masses aren’t biting yet. Ward said the two demographics are biding their time, shopping around for a good value or perfect fit.
A recent open house he hosted drew 40 agents to a home that would have once only drawn a handful, he said. Those agents, like the savvy buyer, are ready to act but only for deals. For now, most are just studying the lay of the land. PJH


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Real estate showings increase | Planet JH News Article: General News

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