The lead story in this Wednesday’s Jackson Hole News&Guide outlines the details surrounding one of Teton County’s highest profile potential foreclosures – the Davies-Reid building on the northwest corner of Town Square.
Today’s Jackson Hole Daily follows up with news that the foreclosure, set for Dec. 29 with an opening bid of $2.76 million, has been postponed until no later than Jan. 31, 2010, in response to an injunction filed by the owners.
Read the stories for the details of the challenges facing the sellers of this particular property, and for why this property is of such significance. Beyond this story, however, this is an excellent example of what is happening throughout the Jackson Hole real estate market.
Not surprisingly, these owners bought the property in 2005, near the height of the housing bubble. Today, with values returning to levels last seen in 2005, people who purchased property since then are likely to have difficulty selling at a price high enough to wipe out the debt on the property. This is resulting in a very high number of the sales in the past few months being short sales (often coming as a surprise to both lender and seller). Not to mention the growing number of property sales by banks that have already foreclosed.
In short, this is an aspect of real estate sales that was virtually unheard of in Teton County just two years ago, but is clearly here to stay for the foreseeable future. Personally, I worked on four deals in 2009 that were short sales and took a continuing education course on the subject. From experience I can tell you that, conceptually, it is all pretty easy to understand, but on the ground it is extremely difficult to communicate effectively and in a timely manner with all involved. And to be blunt, most if not all of the blame can be placed on the banks.
Check out the Teton County Sheriff’s Office Web site for an explanation of the foreclosure process in Wyoming and for a list of upcoming auctions. Let me know if I can answer any questions about the process or any of the properties on the list.
