Here’s your Durango Real Estate Statistics and Weekly Update! Great deals, new listings, foreclosures and sold comparables.

23 properties sold in Durango, Colorado and area over the last week, that’s 6 more than last week. Some really good deals – check it out.

Click Here for Sold Listings

New Durango Real Estate Listings this week:

There are 39 new listings this week. That’s 1 more than last week!

Click Here for New Listings

Bankowned Listings (REO):

Due to continuing interest we are including REO property, which means “Real Estate Owned” in bank-lingo, in other words, bankowned properties, or foreclosed properties after the foreclosure process is completed. The bank/lender now owns the property. They are typically sold at a discount, hence the popularity! Please follow this link to our foreclosure page on our website. It shows all active bankowned and foreclosure listings in the area and is continually updated. Bookmark it and visit it often! Or email us, info@blueribbondurango.com to get set up for automatic email notifications on new bankowned listings!

Click here for Foreclosures & Bankowned Homes in the Durango & Surrounding Areas

 And Back by Popular demand – the Market Snapshot – Free and Instant Home Valuations! A cool map based comparable report that shows new listings and sales comparables to your house, for sellers or buyers.   Sign up by clicking here. Or go to Durangohousevalues.com. You’ll love it!

Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!

Get the current market situation and find out what your home is worth. Sign up for the market snapshot here

Disclaimer – these links and information are based on the Durango local multi listing service. While all information is deemed accurate there are no guarantees. Does not include for sale by owners or foreclosure properties that are not listed on the MLS.

Also, our town is a big hit! In 2011 Durango was once again in the national spotlight! Here is a summary of what the Durango Herald published about us: Click Here for the Article

* Best Places to Live 2011 and Best Place to Put Your OutdoorLife First – Men’s Journal

* Top Micropolitan Area in the US – Politicom

* Top Ten Western Towns – True West Magazine

* Top 200 Town in the US – Outdoor Life Magazine

* Top 10 “Life is Better Here” Town and “Next Big Thing” – Outside Magazine

* Colorado’s Secret Stashes – Ski Magazine

* Durango selected as the start of the prestigious US Pro Cycling Challenge - Click Here for the Article

What sold this past week?

17 properties sold in Durango, Colorado and area over the last week, that’s 5 more than last week. Some really good deals – check it out.

Click Here for Sold Listings

New Durango Real Estate Listings this week:

There are 38 new listings this week. That’s 6 more than last week!

Click Here for New Listings

Bankowned Listings (REO):

Due to continuing interest we are including REO property, which means “Real Estate Owned” in bank-lingo, in other words, bankowned properties, or foreclosed properties after the foreclosure process is completed. The bank/lender now owns the property. They are typically sold at a discount, hence the popularity! Please follow this link to our foreclosure page on our website. It shows all active bankowned and foreclosure listings in the area and is continually updated. Bookmark it and visit it often! Or email us, info@blueribbondurango.com to get set up for automatic email notifications on new bankowned listings!

Click here for Foreclosures & Bankowned Homes in the Durango & Surrounding Areas

 And Back by Popular demand – the Market Snapshot – Free and Instant Home Valuations! A cool map based comparable report that shows new listings and sales comparables to your house, for sellers or buyers.   Sign up by clicking here. Or go to Durangohousevalues.com. You’ll love it!

Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!

Get the current market situation and find out what your home is worth. Sign up for the market snapshot here

Disclaimer – these links and information are based on the Durango local multi listing service. While all information is deemed accurate there are no guarantees. Does not include for sale by owners or foreclosure properties that are not listed on the MLS.

Book Review: ‘The Smartest Money Book You’ll Ever Read: Everything You Need to Know About Growing, Spending and Enjoying Your Money’ Author: Daniel R. Solin

Today’s post-recession, pro-consumer, anti-bank zeitgeist reflects a dramatic sea change in the world of personal finance advice. Gone are the days when the cable TV pundits whose eyes bulge as they holler hysterics about what, when and whether to buy, sell or hold are taken seriously as anything but entertainment.

All the rules of thumb (e.g., owning a home is good) have been revised and nuanced (e.g., owning a home is good if X, Y and Z, but renting makes more sense if A, B and C).

And there’s also been a sea change in how this advice is delivered. Instead of a once-weekly column in the local paper by a financial writer, these days there is a steady stream — flood, even — of advice-blog posts written by actual financial advisers and delivered in short, simple chunks right-sized for today’s shrunken attention spans.

Daniel R. Solin is one such expert/blogger, and uses the same pithy style, linking to complementary online resources as he does in his advice columns on HuffingtonPost.com and USNews.com in his new book, “The Smartest Money Book You’ll Ever Read: Everything You Need to Know About Growing, Spending and Enjoying Your Money.”

Here are four of Solin’s smartest financial do’s and don’ts:

1. Don’t try to play the market. Solin practically pleads with readers not to base their housing or stock market investment decisions on their guesses as to whether the market will rise or fall, and when.

On real estate, Solin says to get aggressive about building equity by making conservative mortgage decisions and extra payments, when possible, rather than trying to sell at the top of the market and buy at the bottom.

And when it comes to the stock market, Solin exhorts readers: “Don’t just do something — stand there!” Solin repeatedly cites historical evidence that simply getting and staying in the market yields better results in the long term than what he calls “hyperactive” investing.

2. Do consider other options to a reverse mortgage to access fast cash in retirement. “Smartest” offers loads of Solin’s advice for retirees whose portfolios, plans and bottom lines have been adversely affected by the recession.

Rather than seeing a costly, legacy-draining reverse mortgage as their first resort for access to large amounts of cash, Solin first cautions retirees to get serious about whether anything but health, food and shelter are truly needs vs. wants (note: helping your children is not a need, in his book) and lists a number of more attractive, but less commonly considered options for accessing cash, including a “regular” home refinance or loan against a 401(k) or cash value life insurance policy.

3. Don’t confuse salespeople for financial advisers. Calling the investment industry “friend and foe,” Solin points out the sobering truth that 95 percent of actively managed funds fail to equal or beat their market indexes, yet the fees for investing in actively managed funds tend to be several times more expensive than for index funds, eroding whatever returns investors in active funds do attain.

Solin urges readers to be aware of the difference between an investment broker, who he says is more accurately described as a salesperson; and a financial adviser, who can take a look at your life and your money and help you set goals, pick low-fee investments, rebalance your portfolio, manage your tax exposure and manage your emotions.

Solin recommends that readers put together a trusted team including an estate planning attorney, a certified public accountant (CPA), and fee-only (i.e., not commission-based) investment and insurance advisers.

4. Do shop around. Solin likens our monthly income and expenses to our body’s metabolism. In the same way we gain weight over the years by consuming calories on autopilot, we can lose cash by having our insurance, investment and other expenses auto-debited, making it highly unlikely that we’ll notice when fees and bills rise.

Solin advises checking in on these items at regular intervals, and shopping around to see whether we can find a better deal.

“Smartest” makes a great effort to be comprehensive in terms of covering every area of financial life, but it doesn’t actually go deep enough to be the only book you need. Rather, it is a great start at giving you the rationale for getting motivated to grow up and get serious about your finances, and provides you with a primer and a road map for the work ahead of you.

With 40-plus chapters averaging a couple of pages in length each, “Smartest” feels rather like a collection of Solin’s blog posts; this will leave some readers hungry for more depth and detail, but will certainly appeal to many others who cringe at the density of a more traditional personal finance title.

To its credit, “Smartest” also does a good job of pointing out where you can find tools to execute Solin’s recommendations or learn more about a given subject online, mostly on the wildly popular and free, do-it-yourself money management platform Mint.com.

Generally, “Smartest” is written in plain English — though its approach is a tad bit imbalanced, getting a little bit in the weeds and detailed in the sections of his particular expertise and borderline vague and oversimplified in others.

However, if you are looking to start your proactive financial planning up again, after the trauma of the recession, or if you are just taking control of your finances for the first time, “Smartest” is a smart choice for the starter book you need to put your own personal money train in motion.

Click Here for the Daily Real Estate News Article

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson
Inman News®

–

Claudia Williams
Owner/Ecobroker/Exchangor
Blue Ribbon Properties, 835 Main Ave #214, Durango, CO 81301

970 247 8388 (office), 970 749 3555 (cell), 970 247 8360 (fax), blueribbondurango.com

Connect with Claudia on facebook, buzztown, twitter, linked in and my blog articles

Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!

Check out the New Market Snapshot to monitor the value of your home and get current local market conditions

What sold this past week?

12 properties sold in Durango, Colorado and area over the last week, that’s 3 more than last week. Some really good deals – check it out.

Click Here for Sold Listings

New Durango Real Estate Listings this week:

There are 32 new listings this week. That’s 5 more than last week!

Click Here for New Listings

Bankowned Listings (REO):

Due to continuing interest we are including REO property, which means “Real Estate Owned” in bank-lingo, in other words, bankowned properties, or foreclosed properties after the foreclosure process is completed. The bank/lender now owns the property. They are typically sold at a discount, hence the popularity! Please follow this link to our foreclosure page on our website. It shows all active bankowned and foreclosure listings in the area and is continually updated. Bookmark it and visit it often! Or email us, info@blueribbondurango.com to get set up for automatic email notifications on new bankowned listings!

Click here for Foreclosures & Bankowned Homes in the Durango & Surrounding Areas

 And Back by Popular demand – the Market Snapshot – Free and Instant Home Valuations! A cool map based comparable report that shows new listings and sales comparables to your house, for sellers or buyers.   Sign up by clicking here. Or go to Durangohousevalues.com. You’ll love it!

Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!

Get the current market situation and find out what your home is worth. Sign up for the market snapshot here

Disclaimer – these links and information are based on the Durango local multi listing service. While all information is deemed accurate there are no guarantees. Does not include for sale by owners or foreclosure properties that are not listed on the MLS.

Review the statistics here: http://blueribbondurango.com/info/durango-real-estate-statistics/

La Plata County residential sales continued to rebound with a total of 718 transactions in 2011, up 14.0%, the highest number of transactions since 2007. The number of sales is up 35% since the bottom of the market in Sept. 2009. Prices were down slightly, -2.6% in 2011 vs. 2010. The sales of Durango In-Town homes was up 28.8% and the median price increased 5.0%, reflecting a tighter inventory of homes available. Durango condo sales showed a significant decline, -15.0 %, in 2011, as the 2010 First Time Homebuyers Credit fueled the condo market. Bayfield rural homes has a stellar increase, with 83 homes sold in 2011, up 62.7% over 2010. Residential land sales were up significantly, +34.8% above 2010. The Durango Mtn. Resort area single family home sales increased +141.1%. The resort condo median
price showed a significant decline as consumers purchased less expensive condos in the resort market.

See the Article in the Durango Herald too:  click here

It’s a great time to buy – what are you waiting for – give us a call.

Stay tuned for our continued weekly Friday sales and new listings statistics!

____
–

Here’s your Durango Real Estate Statistics and Weekly Update! Great deals, new listings, foreclosures and sold comparables.

What sold this past week?

9 properties sold in Durango, Colorado and area over the last week. Some really good deals – check it out.

Click Here for Sold Listings

New Durango Real Estate Listings this week:

There are 27 new listings this week. That’s one less than last week!

Click Here for New Listings

Bankowned Listings (REO):

Due to continuing interest we are including REO property, which means “Real Estate Owned” in bank-lingo, in other words, bankowned properties, or foreclosed properties after the foreclosure process is completed. The bank/lender now owns the property. They are typically sold at a discount, hence the popularity! Please follow this link to our foreclosure page on our website. It shows all active bankowned and foreclosure listings in the area and is continually updated. Bookmark it and visit it often! Or email us, info@blueribbondurango.com to get set up for automatic email notifications on new bankowned listings!

Click here for Foreclosures & Bankowned Homes in the Durango & Surrounding Areas

 And Back by Popular demand – the Market Snapshot – Free and Instant Home Valuations! A cool map based comparable report that shows new listings and sales comparables to your house, for sellers or buyers.   Sign up by clicking here. Or go to Durangohousevalues.com. You’ll love it!

Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!

Get the current market situation and find out what your home is worth. Sign up for the market snapshot here

Disclaimer – these links and information are based on the Durango local multi listing service. While all information is deemed accurate there are no guarantees. Does not include for sale by owners or foreclosure properties that are not listed on the MLS.

Here’s your Durango Real Estate Statistics and Weekly Update! Great deals, new listings, foreclosures and sold comparables.

What sold this past week?

13 properties sold in Durango, Colorado and area over the last week. Some really good deals – check it out.

Click Here for Sold Listings 

New Durango Real Estate Listings this week:

There are 28 new listings this week. That’s more than double from last week!

Click Here for New Listings

Bankowned Listings (REO):

Due to continuing interest we are including REO property, which means “Real Estate Owned” in bank-lingo, in other words, bankowned properties, or foreclosed properties after the foreclosure process is completed. The bank/lender now owns the property. They are typically sold at a discount, hence the popularity! Please follow this link to our foreclosure page on our website. It shows all active bankowned and foreclosure listings in the area and is continually updated. Bookmark it and visit it often! Or email us, info@blueribbondurango.com to get set up for automatic email notifications on new bankowned listings!

Click here for Foreclosures & Bankowned Homes in the Durango & Surrounding Areas

 And Back by Popular demand – the Market Snapshot – Free and Instant Home Valuations! A cool map based comparable report that shows new listings and sales comparables to your house, for sellers or buyers.   Sign up by clicking here. Or go to Durangohousevalues.com. You’ll love it!

Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!

Get the current market situation and find out what your home is worth. Sign up for the market snapshot here

Disclaimer – these links and information are based on the Durango local multi listing service. While all information is deemed accurate there are no guarantees. Does not include for sale by owners or foreclosure properties that are not listed on the MLS.

Here’s your Durango Real Estate Statistics and Weekly Update! Great deals, new listings, foreclosures and sold comparables.

What sold this past week?

15 properties sold in Durango, Colorado and area over the last week. Some really good deals – check it out.

Click Here for Sold Listings 

New Durango Real Estate Listings this week:

There are 13 new listings this week, click here for new listings.

Click Here for New Listings

Bankowned Listings (REO):

Due to continuing interest we are including REO property, which means “Real Estate Owned” in bank-lingo, in other words, bankowned properties, or foreclosed properties after the foreclosure process is completed. The bank/lender now owns the property. They are typically sold at a discount, hence the popularity! Please follow this link to our foreclosure page on our website. It shows all active bankowned and foreclosure listings in the area and is continually updated. Bookmark it and visit it often! Or email us, info@blueribbondurango.com to get set up for automatic email notifications on new bankowned listings!

Click here for Foreclosures & Bankowned Homes in the Durango & Surrounding Areas

 And Back by Popular demand – the Market Snapshot – Free and Instant Home Valuations! A cool map based comparable report that shows new listings and sales comparables to your house, for sellers or buyers.   Sign up by clicking here. Or go to Durangohousevalues.com. You’ll love it!

Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!

Get the current market situation and find out what your home is worth. Sign up for the market snapshot here

Disclaimer – these links and information are based on the Durango local multi listing service. While all information is deemed accurate there are no guarantees. Does not include for sale by owners or foreclosure properties that are not listed on the MLS.

As we wrap up 2011, Trulia’s Chief Economist looks ahead at what’s in store for the battered housing market and which cities have a big reason to celebrate the New Year.

My crystal ball is never as crystal-clear as I’d like, but I do think that we can expect a gradual economic recovery to move the housing market a few steps back toward normal in 2012.

Before getting into the predictions, let me be upfront about what I’m assuming. After 14 months of job gains, I expect the economy to continue its slow but determined recovery. I don’t do my own macroeconomic forecasts, but every single one of the fifty-ish economic forecasters surveyed by the Wall Street Journal expects the economy to grow throughout 2012, and that makes sense to me.

Here’s what I expect in 2012 and what it means for agents:

Delinquencies will go down, but foreclosures will go up.

Fewer borrowers will fall behind on their payments next year, thanks to the strengthening economy and refinancings. The share of delinquent borrowers is already down more than a quarter from the peak a couple of years ago. But many borrowers who fell behind on their payments during the housing crisis are still in limbo: last year’s robo-signing controversy threw a wrench in the gears of the foreclosure process. That means that some delinquent loans haven’t yet gone through the foreclosure process. Once a settlement is reached with banks over robo-signing, we’ll see a new wave of foreclosures and foreclosure sales.

What it means for agents: Despite the decline in delinquencies, the wave of foreclosures will hurt. New foreclosures will depress prices for several reasons – foreclosed homes are often sold at a discount and used as comps for non-distressed homes; vacant homes bring down the value of their neighbors; and high foreclosures are the worst thing for consumer confidence in the housing market. That will hurt seller motivation even more than buyer motivation since lower prices will mean deals for some buyers. Agents should be gearing up with competitive pricing strategies to catch buyers and preparing to counsel their traditional seller-clients about the depressed prices to come in high-foreclosure areas.

Rents will rise – which is a bad thing.

With fewer people buying homes and more people losing their homes to foreclosures, rental demand is increasing. High rents will hold back economic growth if businesses can’t pay workers enough to have a roof over their heads. Squeezed city-dwellers won’t get relief until late 2012: that’s when a wave of new multi-unit construction projects that started late this year will be completed and available for rent. To tackle growth-killing high living costs in the priciest cities head on, local governments need to get rid of height restrictions and arduous permitting processes, which hold back urban construction and push development to the suburbs.

What it means for agents: Rising rents and falling prices make buying a great deal – but only for prospective buyers who can afford the downpayment and qualify for a mortgage. When counseling buyers, agents need to be aware of the struggle and sacrifice required to save for down payments in this climate. But the good news is that there will be clients motivated by available inventory and low prices – even though these clients may require more hand-holding around financing options.

Mortgage rates will inch up – which will probably be a good thing.

A stronger economy will push Treasury bonds and mortgage rates up because inflation becomes more likely and investors demand higher rates to hold bonds. But lots of factors can push rates up or down. For the housing market, which direction rates go is less important than why. Gradual economic recovery is good news for the housing market even if it means higher mortgage rates – because higher mortgage rates should go hand-in-hand with greater housing demand.

What it means for agents: Higher mortgage rates mean higher monthly payments for buyers, but a stronger economy means that buyers will be better able to afford those rates. Higher rates probably won’t hold back buyers much: rates are only one of many factors that enter into the cost of buying a home, and for many buyers the downpayment is a much bigger barrier to homeownership than the monthly payments. Also, buyers need to be reminded that homeownership has other costs on top of the monthly mortgage payment, like insurance and maintenance, which can add half again as much to the cost of owning a home. Agents should help buyers figure out the overall costs and benefits of homeownership, not just the monthly mortgage payment.

 Government will sit on its hands.

In election years, politicians don’t take risks: they’re more talk and less action, so don’t expect any bold housing policy reforms next year. What’s more, with the housing market now recovering, we’re not in enough of a crisis to force political opponents together. Instead, in 2012 we’ll see the effects of modest housing proposals from this year: easier refinancing under the expanded HARP program, and more government-owned homes coming to market for sale or rent. But the bitter debate in Washington over the budget deficit and debt will continue.

What it means for agents: No news may be good news: I don’t expect major changes in policy that will upend the housing market. But government is slowly scaling back support for housing, both to encourage the private sector to come back in and also to help deal with the federal budget deficit. Late this year we saw increased fees on Fannie and Freddie to help fund the payroll tax cut, lower conforming loan limits, and proposals to scale back mortgage interest deduction. Agents should explain to buyers what these changes means for their mortgage costs, both before and after taxes.

Smart cities are hot.

 In 2012, the local housing markets that will enjoy rising prices, new construction or both, are those that start the year with stronger job growth and fewer empty homes holding back the market. My top five cities to watch are Austin TX, Houston TX, San Jose CA, the Boston suburbs, and Rochester NY. Most of these cities have strong high-tech industries or high-skill workforces. During the housing boom, the go-go cities tended to be lower-skill, lower-education metros. But in 2012, smart is hot.

What it means for agents: All markets are local. Even though the housing bubble and bust affected nearly all markets, each local market is recovering – or not – at its own pace. National indicators are helpful in understanding where the market is going overall, but buyers and sellers need to understand what’s happening in your local market – which could be very different from the national picture

Click Here for the Link to the Trulia Article

Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!

Get the current market situation and find out what your home is worth. Sign up for the market snapshot here

December 23rd, 2011 – Hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Here’s your Durango Real Estate Statistics and Weekly Update! Great deals, new listings, foreclosures and sold comparables.

What sold this past week?

17 properties sold in Durango, Colorado and area over the last week. Some really good deals – check it out.

Click Here for Sold Listings 

New Durango Real Estate Listings this week:

There are 26 new listings this week, click here for new listings.

Click Here for New Listings

Bankowned Listings (REO):

Due to continuing interest we are including REO property, which means “Real Estate Owned” in bank-lingo, in other words, bankowned properties, or foreclosed properties after the foreclosure process is completed. The bank/lender now owns the property. They are typically sold at a discount, hence the popularity! Please follow this link to our foreclosure page on our website. It shows all active bankowned and foreclosure listings in the area and is continually updated. Bookmark it and visit it often! Or email us, info@blueribbondurango.com to get set up for automatic email notifications on new bankowned listings!

Click here for Foreclosures & Bankowned Homes in the Durango & Surrounding Areas

 And Back by Popular demand – the Market Snapshot – Free and Instant Home Valuations! A cool map based comparable report that shows new listings and sales comparables to your house, for sellers or buyers.   Sign up by clicking here. Or go to Durangohousevalues.com. You’ll love it!

Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!

Get the current market situation and find out what your home is worth. Sign up for the market snapshot here

Disclaimer – these links and information are based on the Durango local multi listing service. While all information is deemed accurate there are no guarantees. Does not include for sale by owners or foreclosure properties that are not listed on the MLS.