Happy New Year!  Was 2022 a good one for you? Are you optimistic about what this year will bring? I hope you answered “Yes” to both of those questions – particularly the second. It’s interesting how expectations shape our perception of everyday occurrences. If the forecast is for cloudy and cold tomorrow, but then the…… continue reading

I hope that there is a corollary to the Old Farmer’s Almanac folklore “when March comes in like a lamb, it will go out like a lion” pertaining to the local real estate market because the year has started off quite lambishly – if that’s a word. So far this year real estate sales volume…… continue reading

“May you live in interesting times” might be an apocryphal proverb, but it seems apropo because it has become abundantly clear that, indeed, these are not normal times. Not here, nor there, not anywhere – as Dr. Seuss would say – the real estate boom has enveloped the country. According to the Financial Times the…… continue reading

I think it’s safe to say that we are in uncharted waters.  Never before has the inventory of homes for sale in the North Fork been this low, nor the average price so high. Today, from Crawford, to Hotchkiss and Paonia there are only five homes for sale priced under $400,000. Say what? Cinco. Just…… continue reading

As summer wanes and the days are cooler, I’m being asked more frequently if the local real estate market is also cooling off.  The answer is no… and yes. First, the yes part. Because there are so few homes on the market, and prices have risen so much, folks who are trying to buy a…… continue reading

Having lived in the North Fork valley for a little over two decades, working in the real estate industry for most of that time, I’ve come to realize how much this area we call home isn’t like “the outside world.”  There are things here that are easy to take for granted, like the dark night…… continue reading

Voda, eau, agua, H2O, water. No matter how you spell it, it’s in short supply. Tom, our benevolent editor-in-chief, declared that this month’s paper would focus on the giver-of-life, water, so I’ll do my best to oblige. I think most folks have heard the rule of three, whereby you can survive about three minutes without…… continue reading

Well, once again, summer is flying by but thankfully Colleen and I have been able to find some time to get away for a few days here and there because the weekends haven’t been completely booked up showing property like they were last summer – undoubtedly because there aren’t very many to show. Does that…… continue reading

Despite all of 2020’s general weirdness and economic disruption, the local real estate market has flourished – particularly sales of residential properties and vacant land. Of the $174 million county-wide sales logged through the end of September by the CREN MLS, $143 million were homes and $15.5 million were land. Together they accounted for just…… continue reading

Pardon me… did you happen to see where I left my crystal ball? It’s no longer enough just to be able to cite recent sales statistics in response to a question about the local real estate market. Everyone already knows – it’s hot (or “Crazy” if you read last month’s column). Now, judging by some…… continue reading