Did Aspen Real Estate jump the shark?

 you make the call (I am no good at picking tops)

Middle school principal quits job---becomes real estate agent

Young local accountant tries to rent friends basement--aware there is no natural light or shower or kitchen says 'ill take anything '

GC is busting his butt to deliver neighbor's house on time (delivery date two days ago)---got busted last week for turning street into parking lot--37 trucks for 1 job site.  Fined GC and drivers---no one cares making too much money.  Also failed to deliver on time----still not heat for the family for x-mas---how very Aspen Dickens.

TDR's (transfer development rights) ---the right to build an extra 250 square feet above code (per TDR) trades at $1.8m up from aprox $200k for the past 5 years.  (ie about a 900% jump in about a year).

Every local I know who is not in real estate is talking (yes talk is cheap) about moving.

Poll in the local paper about how difficult is it to get a table for dinner lately---not sure I will never be able to afford to eat out in Aspen again leads results with 60% of the vote (there are 5 different options).

A bit of land that I looked at buying 6 years ago for $4m sells for $20m (and sold 5 months ago for 15m).

Another local hunt (SU Casa ) will be gone---Mark Hunt adding it to his portfolio of land banked (ie vacant) properties.

The city council is trying to reduce prices by stopping development and short term rentals.  Maybe I missed something in econ class but reducing supply is an interesting way to lower prices---might I suggest eliminating all rules regarding development to both increase supply and reduce demand by making Aspen a less awesome place (more traffic, less views, more Texans).

merry x-mas.

PS its raining.

naked teen hockey players (and another vent about getting screwed with my rental)

 i figured naked would get your attention so I put that in the title as click bait.

Seems our fearless board of health has decided the best way to keep COVID to a minimum is to have hockey players (both boys-men, girls-woman) change outside the locker room so that they don't have to share a confined space while wearing a mask at all times---my daughter was kind enough to inform me that doing suicides at the end of an hour of dryland and an hour skate with a mask on the whole time is ----suicidal.  My son helpfully pointed out that clearly the board of health hasn't been in the high school lunch room where kids are packed tight without masks (or to a restaurant).

Still the end result is naked hockey players changing in the rink.  Safe Sport is having a fit.

We went under contract on a bit of land to build a home.  Then during disclosure the developer provided the soils report that called out the risk of a sink hole in our building envelope. The developer offered to lean on the soils guy to re-write the report (does that make a sink hole magically go away?) While my most excellent insurance guy informed me that he couldn't insure against a sink hole.  We walked (ran) happily away from that property.

Our current rental ($20k a month up from a similar location-home when we moved her six years ago of $7.5k a month) continues to have issues.  Some of which are:

1.  water soaked hot tub cover making hot tub largely unusable (since before we moved in).

2.  poor heat in master bedroom that was called out in May but supposed to be offset by fireplace which doesn't work

3.  Washing machines were replaced and work but we are at close to 20 days of workers here and it ain't done yet (patching walls, painting, electrical sockets etc (lets not forget 3 weeks without a working washing machine)

4.  Windows that don't open (in my son's room--I mean if you are gonna hot box your room you dang well want to be able to open the windows)

5.  bathrooms without door hardware

6.  elevator not working (told in May would be working when we moved in)

7.  bald face lie from broker re rodents---I asked if there is a rodent problem, and the agent said 'no' uh except for the 14 that were killed in May which we found out from Orkin after we moved in

So we asked for compensation--seems to us that if you can't open the windows, close the bathroom door, wash your clothes, use the hot tub etc you shouldn't be asked to pay full rent that is supposed to include those things in the contract.

The owner feels otherwise.  He thinks that since we got such a discount (we paid his listed rental price) that we are not entitled to a refund.  I have no clue what to do---go to court?  Seems like I will pay lots of money in legal fees to get a little money back from the owner.   

Bottom line---do not rent in Aspen-Snowmass Village.  Ever single owner has fucked us.  Every fucking one.  And the real estate agencies that are making a fortune couldn't give a shit from what I can tell.  Rental contracts are best used as toilet paper.  For a small town Aspen sure is full of a bunch of assholes.  

PS While I am ranting---I just got a notification of COVID-19 exposure for one of my kids (which one-they won't say to protect the privacy of the person with COVID).  Who the person is with COVID so we can evaluate the risk--did they just pass each other in the halls or did they spend the night sharing a joint?  If this is Pitkin contact tracing why bother?  Thank goodness the naked hockey girls are all wearing masks.