Real Estate Third Quarter Stats in Winter Park, CO - by Shanna Lalley

Mud season is officially upon us it is not quite cold enough for the snow to be sticking to the ground in town but it is covering the Continental Divide and Winter Park Resort is looking like a ski area a change is gonna come (Sam Cooke, musician & song writer) Interest rates on a 30 year-year fixed loan continue to be at historic lows (at the time of writing rates were below 4%) - and YES! You can get these great rates on a second home. Lending for condominiums has continued to improve. Prior to the recession a second home purchaser only needed to put 5% down on a condo and then have a 15% second mortgage (meaning no mortgage insurance was required). Then along came the mortgage crisis and the minimum down payment increased to 25% (which also gets you the lowest rates available). But what is a person to do nowadays if they want to take advantage of the current state of our real estate market but they only have 10% to put down? With the stock market beginning to recover (albeit slowly) most people are reluctant to pull money out of the market right now to assist with their down payment. Enter the return of the 10% down mortgage for a condo loan! In recent weeks we have seen this become available again. Not every lender can do them so if you are interested please give me a call and I can give you the information. The interest rates and closing costs are low, low, low so dont hesitate to investigate this avenue for a loan. We have also seen the return of loans for some condo-tels. Again, the rates are competitive but you will be limited to a 3-yr, 5-yr or 7-yr ARM. Still not a bad way to go if you are wanting to finance a condo in the Zephyr Lodge at the base of Winter Park Ski Resort prices on 1-bedrooms are at an all time low with some recent sales occurring around $250,000. The end of the third quarter is showing the same trend as earlier in the year declining inventory of both condos and residential with an increase in both the number of Under Contract & Sold properties and an increase in Sold Volume.The average residential sold price is continuing to firm up but we still have about 20% to go before we are back to prices at the height of the market in 2008. The average condominium sold price remains down about 11% from last year and down 41% from 2008.