In fact, I guess the question is how different (or not) the Taos real estate market might be?  Or, are we losing buyers to other ski areas where prices are more attractive?

A story in the New York Times

It's still a good story, but one person's statement that she rented a home in Taos, but didn't like the arid climate or the landscape was interesting.  I guess everyone has their idea of natural beauty.  I guess it's possible she didn't like sagebrush and didn't drive the Enchanted Circle, or just venture into Taos Canyon.  Oh well, it's getting crowded here anyway.

We have a small MLS and there isn't a huge amount of competition here, so maybe those are a couple of reasons why listing brokers can continue to provide mediocre services for high dollar commission. In putting up a price change alert today, I noticed a home over $500k that had been reduced three times in price, and it only had three exterior photos. I was really feeling sorry for the seller for paying a high commission for such poor property presentation until I saw that it was owned by the broker...so they're getting what they deserve.

But, this prompted me to take another look at all of the residential listings currently active (873 of them) to see how they fared for images and virtual tours.  Here are some bullet points:

• 303, or 35% had less than the maximum 9 allowed photos of the listed home.
• 90, or 10.3% had 4 or fewer photos.
• 24, or 2.7% had either no photo at all or just one.
• A whopping 749, or 86%,  had no virtual tour link in the listing.

Sorry sellers, but why do you put up with this?  This is especially true in today's technology world when virtual tours are either free or a few bucks each.  And, with digital cameras, why would there not be enough about your home worth taking 9 easy, fast and free pictures?  In that group with zero or only 1 image, almost half were over $300k, with at least one listed at more than $1.2 million.

I've also updated inventory and absorption rate stats, so check how it looks today in relation to past updates.  Keep in mind that inventory and absorption rates are not a report available from the MLS in the past, so unless someone else is going in and doing these periodically, this is the only place you'll find historical records of these numbers.

Even better, as I take new photos, they're added to a great mapping site, and you can view maps by items of interest in the Taos area.  As each map has the links to the others at the top, I'll just take you here to the Taos Arts Map as an example.  All are easily accessed from the Maps tab at the top of every page.  You can zoom, change map type, and mouse over the icons or the images for more information.

I'm trying to map every hotel, motel, b&b, business, building, restaurant, gallery, studio, horse trail, hiking trail and campground in the Enchanted Circle area.  To do that, I need to take a photo at the site, but I don't mind, and it's free.  I want this to be the best site on the Web for Taos area information.  So, if you have a business or favorite location you want mapped, email it to me, and I'll move it up higher on the list.  These maps will get more on them as quickly as I can take the photos.

Today’s Town of Taos Council Meeting highlights -

1)      Lodgers Tax Advisory Board, Town of Taos – ratified by Council -- Mayor Cordova has led the Town on aligning the Board’s role with what they should be doing under State statute, which is contributing substantive input to the Mayor and Council on how the Town’s lodgers tax funds ought to be spent on helping tourism in Taos.  Two meetings a year will be designed to focus on this input.  Other ‘elective’ meetings may include quarterly marketing meetings with the community.  The refreshed Board, and their designated representation on the Board, includes (list with contact information attached):

Chris Smith, Lodger

Rey Deveaux, Jr., Tourist Business

Morris Whitten, Tourist Business

Merly James, General Public

Ken Blair, Lodger

2)      Town of Taos Recycling Advisory Committee – appointments ratified – appointees include Joseph Godfrey/Recycle Taos, Uvaldo Olonia/Taos County, Barb Wiard/Landfill Board Chair and TSV Council Member, Steve Fuhlendorf/Taos County Chamber of Commerce, Melissa Larsen/Wholly Rags, Francisco Espinoza/Director, Public Works, Town of Taos, Jean Nichols/Art for the Heart

3)      Council member Abeyta highlighted Council’s need to focus and move forward on the ‘clean up’ of the Bigbee building.  There was some discussion of the other ‘nuissance properties’ in Taos, and agreements with owners that are being negotiated.  Action on properties is being actively pursued.

4)      Town of Taos revised Sign Code/public hearing – approved with extensive recommendations made today in Council. Matthew Spriggs, Director, Community & Economic Development Dept. presented the draft new code, which he indicated had changes made to it as late as yesterday.  Council reviewed it and had many of their own.  A final version of the ordinance passed today and can be secured in a couple of days from Director Spriggs, dspriggs@taosgov.com.  This office will also send it out as soon as a final version is secured.

5)      ‘Star’ Department this month – the Town of Taos Legal Department, comprised of Town Attorney Allen Ferguson, Assistant Town Attorney Jack Clough, and Administrative Assistant/Legal Assistant Cindy Perez.  This Department completes over 300 contracts per year, consults constantly with the Council, Management and all Departments, has initiated new programs over the last year including work to improve nuisance properties, litigation work, and a variety of other town-wide tasks.  Charlie Sanchez, Buildings Dept., was also honored for his dedication to serving town constituents above and beyond his regular assignments.

6)      Presentation by Rocky Mountain Youth Corps (RMYC) – presentation concerning the Learning Lab Students’ involvement in assisting the Taos Coalition to End Homelessness.  http://youthcorps.org/contactus.html This help includes $100 and 26 ‘care packages’ presented to the Taos Coalition to End Homelessness at today’s Council meeting by the RMYC. Upcoming December ‘art event’ to help the Coalition - http://www.wnightingale.com/events.

7)      Taos Artist Organization (TAO) presentation was postponed due to Whitehawk’s inability to attend today’s meeting.

8)      Accrued annual leave policy (this is combined vacation and sick leave) at the Town of Taos was today amended to do away with some problematic issues.  The new policy encourages use of the elective time off, rather than its unlimited accrual for ‘sell back’ purposes.  Of course adequate sick leave will still be maintained.  No staff will loose accrued annual leave hours, but the sell back component is now restricted.  Want a copy of the new policy?  Contact Loretta Trujillo, Director, Town of Taos Human Resources, ltrujillo@taosgov.com.

9)      Ordinance was passed by Council approving the 2010 holiday schedule for the Town of Taos – dates are listed below.

Monday, January 18, 2010                      Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday

Friday, April 02, 2010                             Spring Day

Monday, May 31, 2010                           Memorial Day

Monday, July 5, 2010                              Independence Day

Friday, July 23, 2010                               Taos Day (1/2 day 1-5 p.m. – Fiestas de Taos)

Monday, September 6, 2010                   Labor Day

Thursday, November 11, 2010                Veteran’s Day

Thursday, November 25, 2010                Thanksgiving Day

Friday, November 26,

2010

In lieu of Presidents Day

Thursday, December 23, 2010                 In lieu of Columbus Day

Friday, December 24, 2010                     Christmas Day

Friday, December 31, 2010                     News Year’s Day

With Angel Fire and Red River accounting for 13 of the 24 closings, we see that those areas also were more than half of the dollar volume.  The days on market of the sold residential properties could indicate price drops that finally got them to move, after around 40 months or so on the market.  It is nice to see 11 conventional financing deals.