ASPEN AREA REAL ESTATE
MARKET ACTIVITY REPORT
As of January 2006

This market report is brought to you as a special courtesy from Peter Kelley
For more information and to
Buy, Sell, or Rent ANY ASPEN AREA PROPERTY,
please call Peter Kelley at (970) 379-4511

Introduction:

“Don’t miss out on the beauty, opportunity and gifts in life looking for the logic in it”

As this saying relates to the Aspen real estate market, history has proven those willing to be bold and accept reasonable risk have been rewarded generously. Those who have hesitated and essentially done nothing while prices steadily rose over the thirty years I have been in this business, have paid the highest cost in lost opportunity.

I have a number of buyers and friends who could never “make the leap” and are now priced out of the market.

I want to encourage everyone who is thinking of buying in Aspen or the Roaring Fork valley, to proceed. Although the initial purchase you make may not be the dream home, downtown loft, exquisitely appointed town home, or wilderness property you hope to own forever -- get your feet wet and ride the historical wave, enjoying the surges of appreciation we have experienced in our market.

All the best, Peter Kelley

Aspen Real Estate Market Report - February 2006

National Association of Realtors (NAR) President Thomas M. Stevens said “Housing is simply returning to a normal market, where annual home prices will rise a little faster than the overall rate of inflation.” He also said “were still seeing double-digit annual price gains, but we should get down to single digit appreciation fairly soon.” However, the title of Mark Gilbert’s article from Bloomberg.com is “Aspen Hasn’t Heard U.S. Housing Bubble May Burst,” his article goes on to say the supply of U.S. homes is at its highest levels since 1998.

Where we go in the Roaring Fork Valley is the question that is on everyone’s mind but the question no one wants to ask. Unlike the rest of the country, high inventory is not the concern; lack of homes to sell is the major concern. However, Timeshares popularity in the upper valley seems to alleviating the lack of inventory to some degree. The shortage of single family homes to sell and the increased building costs over last year should continue to put upward pressure on prices.

Pitkin County

Pitkin County saw a nice rebound from January in dollar volume and returned from the stratosphere as far as transactions are concerned. Both categories saw double digit increases from the same period last year

Pitkin County had $121 million in sales an almost 11% increase in dollar volume over February of last year. February transactions of 115 represented a 16% increase over 2005 continuing due in large part to interval transactions. Interval sales represented 53% of all transaction in Pitkin County and almost 12% of the dollar volume for the month.

Garfield County

Garfield County dollar volume, like Pitkin, saw an increase but transactions were down for the first time in 14 months. Transactions when compared to 2004 and 2003 were up 15% and 5% respectively.

Dollar Volume of $41 million was up almost 15% over February of 2005, which represents the fourth year in a row that dollar volume increased in February. Transactions of 125 were 15 less and down 11% from February of 2005, not a big surprise with the lack of interval shares in the down valley area.

By: Mark Pisani
Land Title Company
Aspen, Colorado

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