Recent press has put forth the problem of shrinking tourism in Taos, as well as the suffering of the artists and galleries in recent years. It is easy to place blame on the events of September 11, 2001, and there has definitely been a profound effect. However, what needs to be understood is the nature of competition for today's tourist dollar.
The Taos real estate market certainly benefits and suffers from the tourism industry. An artice in Global Viewpoints even mentions Taos and Santa Fe, and the loss of one regular visitor to world travel. We compete with destinations around the world. This article is about commercial real estate and global travel trends. However, all involved in generating tourism interest in Taos should think about our competition, and it isn't just Aspen and Keystone.
Angel Fire is apparently going to build a new sports complex of softball and soccer fields. It is a worthy goal to provide areas for children and adults to recreate. It appears that the plan is moving forward, though there is some negative commentary about its funding.
It seems that the funding for the project will come from an increase in lodging taxes. The new rate will be 15% in Angel Fire. There are those in real estate and lodging who believe that it will negatively impact the lodging industry there. It might, as that's more than a night's stay on a weekly rental. It is human nature to avoid as much conflict as possible, so it's always easier to tax non-residents. The only problem is that, sooner or later, it will impact the residents anyway.
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New Mexico Airlines shows the map below on their site. We've had a haphazard airline service history in Taos, and it would be nice to get a new one with staying power. However, note that the date for service is shown as December 1, 2007, and we obviously are not served on this date.
I called three times on two phones to ask them about service, but somehow I, or they, are having a "bad phone day." I was disconnected all three times. I'll blame it on Skype and Verizon. If anyone knows how this is playing out, please comment to let us know.
There is absolutely nothing in this post or reference article related to Taos real estate. However, this article on the Honey Man in Villanueva was fun to read and quite educational.
Dionycio Padilla shares a great deal of his knowledge about bees and honey. It is also very apparent that he loves working with bees. A small quote to get your interest: "The bees contribute far more than honey to his life, Padilla says. On one part of his land, where he had kept bees for several years, a field of evening primrose suddenly appeared one summer. The bees, he says, had brought the pollen and planted the beautiful field. "
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Taos Center for the Arts
December 5, 2007
COMING TO THE TCA
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SWINGIN' SUITES FEATURING
MOVING PEOPLE DANCE THEATRE
Saturday, December 8 7:30 p.m.
 Join in this Holiday Extravaganza. Original choreography with several twists on the traditional Nutcracker tale set to Jazz renditions of the classic Tchaikovsky score by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, and Glen Miller.
Tickets are $20 adults, students and seniors $15, available at FX-18 Gifts and Jewelry or call 758-2052 to charge tickets by phone.
SUZUKI VIOLIN CONCERT
Sunday, December 9 2 p.m.
 This free concert features music from the Suzuki repertoire as well as traditional Christmas music, performed by Audrey Davis' private students and Country Day School students.
Now in her 26th year of teaching string instruments, Davis has 100 students that will perform on the violin and cello, including a Youth String Orchestra featuring 15 students from grades 3rd through 8th, and another string quartet of high school students. Call 758-4291 for more information.
ART AT THE STABLES GALLERY
 Grant Besley Paintings
Watercolors, oil paintings, bronze and ceramic sculptures.
December 1 - 7. For more information call 737-9219
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MOVIES AT THE TCA
The next Movies at the TCA series schedule is to be announced.
THANK YOU,
Taos Mountain Casino
for sponsoring Movies at the TCA! |
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El Monte Sagrado has been doing a lot of work inside those expanding walls. I've driven by almost daily and watched the different gate blockages while new buildings went up.
It's obvious that they've been adding rooms and meeting space. This article tells us just what has been done. They can now accomodate many more guests. And, if your group wants to host a function at El Monte Sagrado, they've likely got the space for it now.
I just wish they had spent just a bit more and enlarged the dance floor. When good music is played in the Anaconda Bar, it would be nice to have a bit more room to "cut a rug."
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For a little earthship history and how Santa Fe is going green, this "Whatever Happened to Earthships?" article is a quite interesting.
It seems that there is a new development going into Santa Fe that won't have earthships per se, but it is a big step in the right direction for sustainable architecture and neighborhoods.
Being Santa Fe, the price of the homes will be around a half million each, but a few bucks will come back in utility and other energy savings. I'll be taking a drive over there after there are a few homes out of the ground. It sounds like some interesting melding of earthship and conventional home architecture.
An article at RealEstateJournal.com speaks to sellers holding homes on the market without dropping price to get them sold. Just for my own statistical curiosity, I did the numbers for the Taos Real Estate Market using their method.
We have 811 homes on the market today. In the last 10 months, generally the busiest of our market year, 322 homes went under contract. That's 32 per month. Using their calculation, it would be 25 or so months for our current inventory to move.
That's a bit simplistic. There have been 144 expired or withdrawn listings during the same 10 month period. Some people gave up for now and may return to try later. Average days on market for current active inventory is 270, just nine months. I think in our market more will withdraw before they'll lower price.
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Granted, an article in The Aspen Times might not be the place to look for objective commentary about the good and bad of the growth in Aspen. But this comparison of Aspen and Taos was fun to read.
The gist of the article seemed to be summed up in this one quote: Or, as a friend of mine once noted, after reading about yet another small town that didn’t want to turn into Aspen, “Yeah — and I don’t want to turn into Bill Gates.”
A lot of the comparisons revolved around growth, particularly in real estate. We can't deny the appreciation and growth in the Taos real estate market over the years. But I'm sure there are a lot of people here who would like to have Bill Gates' resources, but still wouldn't want to be him. Or was that the point?
At any rate, it was nice to see someone from Aspen speaking up for the rafters and outdoor ethusiasts that may not frequent the posh restaurants, but they are welcome and do their part for the economy when they visit.
My focus on Taos real estate gets pretty intense. A great blog post I read this morning comments on the more human part of solar power.
Here's a quote from the post: "For some of his customers, Collum said, installing a solar system is a 'deeply wonderful philosophical thing. For others it’s just cool, and for some there is the tech of it.'
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Angel Fire Resort has been growing, improving and marketing more than ever before. The Taos real estate MLS has also picked up some new membership in Angel Fire, and this is contributing to a much better coverage of the homes and land for sale there than previously.
Angel Fire Resort has just announced some high profile management personnel additions. I'm sure that this signals even more growth in tourism, not only for Angel Fire, but for the area as a whole. The two ski areas complement each other with differing terrain and the boarder option at Angel Fire.
We wish the new management well, as any new tourism they draw will most certainly benefit Taos as well.
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Just a reminder, as this is only the second week, I'm placing some Taos real estate broker hotsheet numbers on the home page of the site each Friday. You can see the stats through Oct 11 there now. Just to compare, here are last weeks':
Taos Real Estate Hotsheet |
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Recent Hotsheet Activity
Market Status
Sep 28 - Oct 4 New Listings = 60 Price Change = 42 Expired = 86 Under Contract = 18 Withdrawn = 17 Homes Active = 883 Land Active = 893 |
Other than Withdrawns, there's not a lot of change. It seems a few more are opting to just remove their properties from the market and wait for a while. Price changes dropped off, but it looks more like last week was just a big group and this week is probably more normal.
The logo to the left is the Accredited Buyer Representative Designation that I received due to specialized training in working with real estate buyers. I'm not the only one in the Taos real estate market that holds that designation, but I may be the only one who holds rigidly to one of the tenets of a good buyer representative.
Here's a national article that just ran recently bashing discount brokerages and specifically mentioning not showing their listings. Though we really don't have any of those here, we do have For Sale by Owner listings, and real estate agents also routinely fail to even mention them to buyer clients.
I responded to that article at about.com in this way. My blog post was written to the real estate agent community, but the main point is quite obvious. You don't NOT serve your buyer client just to punish competition or the rascal seller that would dare to not use us to list their property. Here's my page on this site explaining the situation a bit better.
If you want to see every property in this market that meets your needs, be sure to ask the broker with whom you're working if that's going happen. If you're not going to get to see For Sale by Owner properties, then find someone who will show them to you......that would definitely be Gallery Realty of Taos.
Though I do quarterly real estate statistics here in this blog, and I do an extensive annual report for download on the website, it's really nice to be able to get a feel for the market at any given time. We REALTORS® have what's called a Hotsheet Report in our MLS software. I have been trying to do a blog post on its status, but think that there's a better way to give you some basic Taos real estate market snapshot information.
On the home page of the my website, you'll now find a box on the left side labeled Taos Real Estate Hotsheet. I'll be trying to update this box every Friday or so. However, when I do update it, I'll take data from the last date that I was able to do it. That way you can follow along with what's happening. Here's what's in the box:
Number of New listings
Number of Price Changes
Number of Expired listings
Number that went Under Contract
Number of Withdrawn listings
Number of Currently Active Home Listings
Number of Currently Active Land Listings
I hope you find this data helpful for your use in keeping up on how the market's moving in Taos real estate.
Local real estate websites tend to become very micro-focused on their local markets, which is not a bad thing. And real estate is largely a very localized thing. However, national trends and market actions affect all local real estate markets in some ways.
In my capacity as the Real Estate Business Guide at About.com, I've placed a page explaining some of the national home price indexes and showing performance charts. One is updated daily, with two updated quarterly. If you want to keep up with the big picture, check out the real estate indexes here.