The first time home buyer credit applies for up to 10% of the purchase price of the home, not to exceed a maximum of $8,000. The $4,000 mentioned in the update applies only when married couples are filing separate returns. Each filer is allowed up to a $4,000 credit. A single individual qualifies for the […]

VAIL VALLEY, Colorado— Steve Pywell took a big step toward selling his Cordillera home on Saturday, a year after he put it on the Vail Valley real estate market.
Like many people selling their homes during the recession, the Houston, Texas, resident had to slash the price before attracting a buyer. He said he cut $700,000 […]

September 14, 2009
By Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist
September has come again, and most folks are back from vacation. Kids are back in school. Traffic (in most locales) has returned to its usual nightmarish levels. Many of us are asking ourselves “where did the summer go?”
Well, summer is not the only thing that has ended. The world-wide […]

Passing through the Fort Myers, Fla., airport a few weeks ago, I noticed people eagerly signing up for a free bus tour of foreclosed real estate—with all properties offering water views. During the ride to my hotel, the young driver volunteered that he had just bought his first house, paying $65,000 for a foreclosed property […]

As a well-polished realtor, you’d never suspect that Donna used to be a cowgirl. Along with her five sisters and one brother, she worked a cattle ranch in southern Idaho. I don’t know how many acres the ranch is. A while back, I learned that asking such things is a bit impolite and somewhat like […]

In some cases, the value of Summit County homes has risen by more than 40 percent. But Summit County assessor Beverly Breakstone said the increase doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll owe a lot more in property taxes next year.
“We’re very hopeful taxes don’t go up much,” Breakstone said. “The good news is, values have gone up.”
This […]

BRECKENRIDGE — Breckenridge officials want to restrict home sizes to preserve neighborhood character, but public concerns have led to a task force aimed at finding a consensus.
The town last week hosted two open-house meetings with residents from about 25 Breckenridge neighborhoods.
In both meetings, many of those surveyed shared that maintaining the size and scale of […]

Recently released year-end figures from Land Title Guarantee Co. reveal what any local real-estate agent already knows: 2008 was not a great year.
Taking data from the Summit County Clerk and Recorder’s Office, Land Title reports that monetary volume for 2008 was down 35 percent from 2007. In December alone, monetary volume for 2008 was down […]

When investing in Colorado’s ski country real estate, many buyers forgo the glamour and exclusivity of chic resorts like Vail, Aspen and Telluride for the much lower prices, deep snowfalls and skiing in Summit County.
“About 70% of all residential property in the county is owned by second-home owners — and that’s been going up,” says […]

The latest federal statistics on housing prices in hundreds of local markets reveal patterns that haven’t been making the nightly news: While on a national basis, homeowners have lost more than $1 trillion in equity since the end of the boom, the overwhelming majority of local markets continue to show net cumulative value growth over […]