I am very excited to feature a fractional ownership opportunity this month at One Willow Bridge Road. This is a fabulous luxury residential development with many resort amenities. It is in the heart of Vail Village – therefore, close to the ski lifts and all of the shops and restaurants in the village.  You will be impressed with the quality and elegance of this property.

The property is available for seven weeks: you get three weeks in the summer, three in the winter and one week to use whenever you want. Basically, you get to enjoy all of the wonderful season that Vail has to offer! Also, you can rent the weeks you don’t use. This two bedroom, two bathroom condo is listed at $595,000. Give me a call at 970-331-1806 to schedule your private showing.

My agency – Slifer, Smith and Frampton Real Estate – issues an annual Smart Buyer’s Report outlining when it is a “smart” time to buy as well as why a certain area might be a better investment opportunity than another. You can read the entire report here and below is a quick summary of a couple of the main points. I’ll be blogging more about the report – as well as your thoughts – on my Web site this month. Visit www.ColoradoLuxuryRealEstateBlog.com.

The report opened with how the current real estate market offers smart buyers the following things: excellent home values throughout the Vail Valley, a broad selection of inventory, favorable interest rates and a resilient local market. They quoted a Fannie Mae survey from April 2010 which found that, nationally, nearly two‐thirds of Americans think now is the right time to buy a house, with a majority believing prices will be the same or higher over the next year.

Essentially, the window of opportunity for homebuyers has opened in that inventory is good, home prices remain competitive and if you’re interested in financing, rates are at a record low. Buyers are realizing that there are a number of reasons to take advantage of current market conditions and are purchasing their mountain homes. Both hard data and anecdotal evidence supports the fact that the market is on the uptick – as I blogged about last month – with sales beating out the last couple of years. You can see the numbers here.

These numbers also indicate that inventory in the Vail Valley hit a high recently – in August of 2009 – and has decreased since remaining under 2,000 active units. Here in Vail, we have not seen the mushrooming of inventory experienced by other markets around the country. This is largely because foreclosures in our area – which have risen a bit in the past year – still remain very low, below 1 percent in Eagle County. As a result, most buyers today are finding a more extensive selection of homes to choose from as compared to prior years such as in 2007 and 2008.

What is great for buyers is that the market has shifted in their favor. Smart buyers in this market are finding sellers more willing to negotiate in order to put together an acceptable transaction.

Executive summary: there hasn’t been a better time to buy a mountain home. There is plenty of inventory and the area is stable. The home prices are competitive and record-low financing is available. It is a great time to invest, not only in a piece of real estate but also in a vacation home that will provide memories for you and your family that will last a lifetime.

The real estate site Trulia.com recently published results from their most recent American Dream survey. They asked Americans what their ideal home size was (and also analyzed data from the National Association of Home Builders and the U.S. Census, among others) to determine the current sentiment of large, luxury homes.

They found that the majority of Americans (55 percent) are looking for homes in the 1400-2600 square foot range.

So, they asked the question: Is the McMansion Era Over?

Two days later, I think we have a pretty good response. The International Business Times reported that the new and upcoming One Hyde Park complex in London sold a penthouse unit for $220 million.

I’m sure you’ve seen the reports that many high-priced luxury real estate properties have been remaining on the market longer than they used to. Yes, this is true but the same can be said for the real estate market at large. And this recent sale at One Hyde Park is one of the largest real estate transactions in the world relative to current listings and sales prices.

This is partly because many buyers in the luxury real estate market are looking for a home – yes – but also an investment property. And real estate, in the long-term, remains a good investment.

Now more on that penthouse unit! Luxist reported that the two-story penthouse unit of London’s nearly completed One Hyde Park is part of a four-tower complex of 86 condominium mansions overlooking Hyde Park and the Serpentine lake. The units start at around $32 million. The mixed-use luxury development is anticipated to open this December. One Hyde residents will receive 24-hour concierge service from the neighboring Mandarin Oriental hotel.

REALTOR® magazine recently had an article on “Reusing with Style,” transforming a home with five eco-friendly repurposing ideas. I liked it so much that I’m sharing some of those ideas with you here — let’s begin with ideas #1 and #2.

The article’s premise is to reuse items in new ways that are positive for the environment and spruce up your home. Combining function and fashion, here are the first two tips to reuse with style:

Create a little bit of history

I love furniture that is a little rustic or rough around the edges. A ding here and there adds to the memories and the charm. So I loved the first tip featured in the article which was to add a sense of history to your home while saving older quality wood and tile. Why throw out old flooring when it can be repurposed into a fabulous table or bookshelf?

The article featured Tom Campbell, owner of Connecticut-based Old Wood Workshop, who started salvaging floors, paneling, cabinetry, doors, and stone from buildings in his rural farming community in the early 1990s. Campbell said that homeowners have become increasingly interested in his work and last year was his busiest year yet of his over 20 years in business.

Cost: approximately $12–$16 per square foot.

Tap your creative self

My grandmother used to take old whip cream containers and use them as Tupperware. Now that was more being a product of the Great Depression but the idea is the same. Find something you don’t use anymore and think creatively: could that old beaker become a vase? How about that old wooden ladder in the garage? Turn it into an outdoor trellis.

It’s about using what you already have in new and interesting ways.

Cost: free.

The Vail Daily reported last week that real estate numbers in Eagle County for June of this year were up significantly over the same time last year. This was according to statistics released by Land Title Guarantee Co. in Eagle.

Here’s the gist:

• June saw $141.8 million in transactions, up 49 percent compared to June of last year. It was the highest monthly total since December of 2008.

• The number of transactions in the county in June also climbed. There were 121 transactions recorded, up from 78 in June 2009.

• For the month, there were nine transactions that sold for $4 milion or more. The largest sales was a penthouse at the new Solaris in Vail, which went for $14.8 million.

• For the first six months of 2009, Eagle County has seen big increases in the transactions and dollar volume compared to 2009. Transactions are up 74 percent and dollar volume is up 88 percent compared to 2009.

This is great news and comes on the heels of some very consistent numbers that I reported on in my August newsletter. I wrote about Real Vail’s story last month “Eagle County, home to Vail and Beaver Creek ski areas, saw the dollar volume of real estate sales more than double in the first five months of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.”

They reported 12 sales totaling $42 million in the Vail Village in May – six of the homes sold for more than $4 million.

This upward trend is encouraging. Also encouraging are numbers that were run by my brokerage firm – Slifer, Smith & Frampton Real Estate – of last month’s sales statistics. We found that, in the past five years, only 2007 had a higher sales volume in June than 2010. That’s great news as it is not just a recovery from the last year or so but it actually is exceeding even when times were pretty darn good.

Why the increase? Some of the uptick is due to home values going down and buyers seeking great deals in luxury real estate areas, such as Vail. And it’s true. Some great deals can still be had.

It is this and the fact that – as Real Vail put it – “the nation’s wealthiest home buyers are feeling more confident about buying luxury mountain properties.” It’s good to see that people are putting their confidence – and dollars – into a great area like Vail.