State of the Real Estate Market in Jackson Hole.

First off the downward slide began and has headed down for more than two years at this point. We have checked with others in the industry along with our own analysis here in Jackson Hole, and have found that there was no area at all for our Real Estate market in Jackson Hole that saw an increase in sales for the past year.

One of the biggest hits in sales are the single family homes for sale. This market alone experienced nearly a 50% drop in sales volume. We feel this occurred due to the overall reticent feeling of people in the economy to move their families from say Indiana, leaving there jobs and coming here. They are somewhat worried about losing their jobs let alone finding a new one here or having their company expand to this location.

Due to the reluctance of banks to lend to new buyers and even seasoned ones without perfect credit the investment market which includes Townhomes, Condominiums and such has also seen a decrease in sales which at this time seems to be a bit over 50%. Everyone wants to be optimistic about the market and what the second and third quarter of the year will look like. Unfortunately no one knows including the government. In my estimation if they had a real handle on the housing situation they would be doing two things. Not throwing huge amounts of money at banks (trillions) and if they did put a stipulation on it that they actually use the money for Real Estate Loans instead of acquiring smaller institutions and going on retreats?

The real estate market in Jackson Hole Wyoming has softened and prices have come down a bit. What we have seen is that no matter what the price of a real estate property is the buyer still would like a deal off of that, even though it may have come down hundreds of thousands in the past year. Psychology seems to always play a part when it comes down to purchasing real estate. As always we would like to hear from you and your opinion on what we have just reported.

Mark Winston and Andrew Ellett