Brief by Allen Best
Economy – November 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
The state of the real estate market in Jackson Hole has been in dispute in recent weeks. A study by a California-based firm found that the median home price in Teton County had dropped 9 percent in the last year. But David Viehman, a local appraiser and real estate agent who has studied the market for a number of years, says the Californians crunched the numbers in ways that don’t necessarily make sense.
As Viehman sees the numbers, prices for single-family homes have actually increased in the last year by 2 percent. However, he discounts condos, townhouses and fractional ownerships — which may have been included in the tabulation of a 9 percent decline.
What clearly is happening, he says, is that locals continue to escalate their prices as if a boom were still occurring. As a consequence, lots of properties are on the market.
“Locals can’t get over the fact that their property is not worth more than it was last year,” Viehman told the Jackson Hole News & Guide. “They won’t come off their price.”
What has happened, several sources tell the newspaper, is that the real estate market is correcting itself after several years of extreme heating, and although mortgages are still available for “strong” borrowers, no national companies are loaning for more than $700,000. Also, vacationers to Jackson Hole who might have been inclined to buy vacation real estate at other times, may be reluctant to invest due to national economic uncertainty.
