Almost 7' of snow

80" in eight days. That is what fell at the JHMR from January 19-January 25.  All of a sudden everyone was smiling (except those trying to fly in or out) and the skiing exploded.  Here is a video from the JHMR that does a good job of explaining what sort of conditions we experienced last week.

Speaking of Flights, this is great news, at long last a direct flight to and from San Francisco (and one from Houston).

This is a nice piece on the Jackson Hole Four Seasons from the Boston Globe.  Plain and simple, it's a really great Hotel.

I'm not sure who at the JHMR gets credit for this ad campaign, but it's really good. Apparently this picture was taken in Colorado.

Canis Lupis, Moose Junction.  Forrest McCarthy took this picture before the recent storms.  As Alfred Hitchcock so astutely noted "there is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it."

Unless of course you're caught in a very large avalanche, which this snowboarder was a week ago in Colorado, in which case the terror is very immediate.   It's a pretty good advertisement for BCA's  Float 30 Avalanche Pack .

Real Estate:

There were 12 real estate closings in January 2012.
28 more went under contract during that same period.
Of that 28, 4 were listed for over $1,000,000 and 3 were listed for more than $2,000,000.
11 were listed for under $500,000.
The least expensive was a 2br/1ba 750 sq. ft. condo in the Town of Jackson losted for $109,000
The most expensive was a 4br/4ba 3000sq. ft. house in Teton Village listed for $2,495,000.  Not quite ski in/ski out but pretty close.  Great rental property.

A few notable Closings in January 2012

2br/3ba 1720 sq. ft condo at the Four Seasons Listed for $1,845,000 Closed for $1,615,000 ($938 per sq. ft)
5br/5ba 4000 sq. ft house in Wilson, 3 acres, Bank Owned, Listed for $3,500,000  Closed for $3,400,000.  (It was originally listed for $4,995,000 in 2009).

3br/3ba condo in East jackson, 1900 sq. ft., Bank owned, listed for $380,000  Closed for $373,000.

Pitchers and Catchers report in 3 weeks.  Bring it on!

2011 Real Estate Totals

Well, it didn't take long.  The first sunny day after a 30+" storm cycle, despite several ardent warnings of very high avalanche danger, a couple of guys headed out to Pucker Face, just South of the JHMR and this is what happened.  A very lucky snowboarder..

This is a nice piece from the USA about Teton Thai restaurant in Teton Village

This was an exciting day for those who showed up for story time at the JH Library.

Some pretty good press for Jackson Hole.  Granted, those of us who live here have know this for quite a while.

I found this photo, and after thinking about it for several days, I'm still at a loss.

Real Estate in the past month or so:

From 12/1/2011 - 1/3/2012 there were 39 Closings.  15 of those were for under $500,000 and 8 were for over $3,000,000
For the same period last year there were 20 Closings.  7 of those were under $500,000 and 4 were for over $3,000,000.
So were seeing the same Buying trends, just twice as many Buyers.  

Totals for 2011 vs. 2010 (this includes all fractional ownership sales and this information does not include private sales such as FSBO's etc.. )

In 2010 there were 227 Closings for residential real estate and 29 closings for vacant land.
In 2011 there were 306 Closings for residential real estate and 34 closings for vacant land.
In 2010 67 of the closings (29%) for residential real estate were for under $500,000.
In 2011 127 of the closings (41%) for residential real estate were for under $500,000.
In 2010 28 of the closings (12%) for  residential real estate were for over $3,000,000.
In 2011 28 of the closings (9%) for residential real estate were for over $3,000,000.

So, according to the MLS the total number of sales in 2011was up about 25% over 2010 and a whopping 45% over 2009 (there were 170 sales of residential real estate and 23 sales of vacant land in 2009).  Clearly we are headed in a positive direction.  Are we approaching 2006-2007 numbers?  Absolutely not, and we may never again.  But judging by the number of foreclosures in Teton County within ALL economic classes, that may not be such a bad thing.
Lastly, I think the high percentage of sales for under $500,000  in 2011 is indicative of a lot of Sellers who are either in foreclosure or under a lot of financial stress combined with historically low interest rates for Buyers who can qualify.  There are first time Buyer's in Teton County getting into homes in 2011 that were completely unreachable in 2007.  I think we will see this trend continue and I don't see values rising in that segment of the market in the first 1/2 of 2012.  In fact, they may go down a little more. I think the high end market $3,000,000+ is going to continue to be OK, with total sales and values slowly heading up.

If you've spent any time at a Whole Foods, you'll appreciate this