National home prices rose for the 4th month in a row in October. Sales in October were up 10.1% over September to bring prices to a 2 1/2 year high. The home buyer tax credit is part of the reason behind the sudden surge. Sales are expected to improve over the next few months as the economy is slowly creeping back.

Vail Mountain opened today for the 2009-2010 ski season. The season started with Chair 8 out of Lionshead running, and the Gondola open for access to on mountain dining at Eagles Nest. Colder temperatures in the last week have allowed for snow making with the Born Free trail opened for the start. There will be a Pub Crawl starting at 7 PM in Vail Village tonight with several giveaways and prizes to be won. Tomorrow night the festivities continue with a free Freddy Jones Band concert at Vail Square in Lionshead at 3 PM. Get tuned up and think snow!

A storm is headed toward Vail today with snowfall predictions as high as a foot. A winter storm warning is in effect thru Saturday and temperatures are expected to drop tonight as well. Lower temps will help the on mountain snowmaking efforts. This is a welcome storm with Vail Mountain opening next Friday. Time to get tuned up and think show.

Obama has signed into law a new stimulus bill extending and modifying the homebuyer tax credit. It extends the current credit for first time homebuyers of $8,000. until the end of April 2010, and there is a new credit of $6,500. for existing homeowners as well. This new credit comes with a stipulation that the homeowner have been in their existing residence 5 years, stating it need to be a primary residence.

Real Estate Transactions in Eagle County for September of 2009 are back to numbers last seen in 2008. September is the best month so far this year in both the total dollar volume and the number of transactions.  Total sales for the month were more than $100 Million.