Wow! What a roller coaster of a year! Looking back, the Jackson Hole real estate market had an extremely quiet spring and picked up in July with consistent activity through December. Frankly, the real estate community has been waiting a LONG time to say that. Average sales prices overall for 2012 are showing a 22% increase over 2011 proving that the Jackson Hole real estate market is on the re-bound.
In residential sales over $1.5M, volume swelled to 54% and the number of transactions increased by 39%. In properties selling below $1.5M, the gain was less dramatic with volume remaining relatively flat and number of transactions increasing only by 11%. Land sales have seen a dramatic increase, especially large acreage parcels which increased by 115% in number of transaction over last year. Residential condo sales saw the least improvement with only a 6% gain in unit sales over 2011 – nevertheless, these numbers should improve dramatically as inventory shrinks and interest rates remain low. Days on market remained steady and actually increased as some inventory remains on the market from previous years bringing most properties listed on the market for over a year or longer. Taking a closer look at our absorption rate – the average time to sell a property in Jackson Hole is just over 2 years. This number should drop significantly as buyers start to regain interest in our market and the economy improves.
Overall, buyers are showing confidence in investing in real estate. Interest rates remain low and our favorable
tax climate has been attracting many buyers from areas like California and New York which has been driving our upper end sales. As early 2013 continues to unfold, expect to see inventory shrink, number of transactions to increase and sales prices remain steady.
Christy Gillespie
www.jacksonholeexperts.com
