ASPEN AREA REAL ESTATE
MARKET ACTIVITY REPORT
As of June 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

A Bump in the Road For Pitkin, Garfield Keeps Rolling! 

Pitkin County may have hit a bump in the road during the month of May.  However, tangible investments like second homes are one of the factors that will continue driving the market in the Roaring Fork Valley.  Unlike Enron stock, home ownership or second home investments won’t be valued at zero overnight. 

May’s hiccup most likely was caused by the opposite problem the rest of the Country is having…inventory.  While realtors I speak with locally say finding properties to sell in Pitkin County is their biggest challenge, other parts of the country are seeing dramatic increases in inventory compared to just a year ago.  For instance New York City (Manhattan County) the number of properties on the market is up 67% for May 2006 over May 2005 and condominium inventory is up 87% according to Jonathan J. Miller, president of the Miller Samuel appraisal firm.  On the other hand, Mr. Miller said he was struck by the number of transactions so far this year above $5 million, a bright spot for the upper end market. 

Another difficult area is South Florida’s Broward County where real estate sales continued to fall by double digits in May, and for-sale inventory jumped from a year ago, according to the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale.  Specifically, there were 8,838 homes available for sale in May compared to 2,412 in May of 2005, an increase of almost 300%.

A bright spot is that second home buying and larger homes have been increasing for the last quarter century according to a Census Bureau Report.  The report says over the past 25 years, the number of second homes has increased 95% and the size of the typical newly constructed single-family home has increased 40%.  This on top of the low inventory and geographical challenges of the Roaring Fork Valley should keep real estate healthy for the foreseeable future.

Pitkin County

Dollar Volume reversed its double digit increases and transactions were down for the second month in a row.  Dollar Volume in May of 205 million was down 16% from the 243 million recorded in May of 2005.  Transactions were also down, 176 transactions this May compared to 187 transactions in May of 2005, which represents almost a 6% decline.  Interval transactions were also down, May interval dollar volume of 14 million was down from May 2005 dollar volume of 17 Million, representing an 18% decrease from last year.

Garfield County

Garfield County kept rolling in May!  Dollar Volume of $96.4 Million represented an increase of almost 39% over the same period in 2005.  Transactions of 261 represent more than a 20% increase in transactions over May of 2005.  Silt had a transaction of almost five million, while Glenwood Springs 77 transactions represent almost 30% of all transactions in Garfield County.

Mark Pisani
Director of Marketing
Land Title Guarantee Company
533 E. Hopkins #102
Aspen, CO 81611
Office 970-925-1678
www.ltgc.com

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