“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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Recently I got a chuckle out of a meme posted on Fb with the heading: “If 2020 Was A Beer” above a photo of a glass, with one inch of beer and five inches of foam. While much of the economy (local, state and national) has taken it on the chin this spring, the housing…