Opinion

The Aspen/Snowmass real estate market gets more attention than any other resort market, and it seems sometimes more headlines than any other real estate market in the world. A lot of the interest and press centers around the occasional “monster” sale, or more recently some of the failed development projects that are getting a new lease on life as the economy recovers. The local real estate market also gets its fair share of performance coverage, “how does this year compare to last year?”, or “are prices still going down?”, and so on.
 
The challenge we face in the real estate industry, and more importantly, the challenge that buyers and sellers face in Aspen/Snowmass is who to trust for quality information. Information that buyers and sellers can use to make educated decisions seems to be more important now than ever. We work with clients and friends that are making million dollar decisions all the time, and often five or ten million-plus dollar decisions. Today’s real estate buyers and sellers need accurate information to help assess values, market trends and a variety of other real estate questions.
 
I love taking on the challenge of finding answers and giving solid advice to whatever real estate questions come my way. Part of what I do is based on grounded experience and knowledge about the local real estate market, sometimes helping people gauge how much emotion should be involved in their sale or purchase (there’s almost always at least a little emotion, sometimes a lot), and doling out educated advice based on objective real estate data when required.
 
The Big Red Book is an annual real estate report for the Aspen, Snowmass Village and Basalt areas. I put together all of the information based on sales and listing data in the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS). The numbers are completely objective, my observations are subjective. Together, the information paints the picture about where we are relative to the past, and I use this foundation to speculate a little about where we are headed (we’re headed in a positive direction by the way).
 
Please click here to view an online version of The Big Red Book. The Big Red Book and other market reports by Andrew Ernemann are available at www.AspenUpdate.com