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From The New West magazine

The Treasure Valley Repo Bus Tour embarked on its maiden voyage in March, driving about 25 pre-qualified and hopeful homebuyers on a tour of Boise and nearby Eagle and Meridian, hunting for deals on foreclosed homes.

"In this market it's ‘Think outside the box.' What can we do to generate some business?" says Nate Wilson, who helped organize the monthly bus tour.

In 2005, Wilson's agency, the Boise branch of Keller Williams Realty, had 600 agents. In mid-April, the count was down to about 380.

Boise has been hammered by the national housing slump and the sub-prime loan debacle. In April, there were 200 homes in Ada County scheduled for a trustee sale, the last step in the foreclosure process, compared to 42 last April. March saw 245 defaults filed, up from 99 in March 2007. In the fourth quarter of 2006, single-family home permits plunged 39.6 percent. [more]

From The New West magazine

For years now, talk in the Mountain West has been about the "amenity" economy displacing natural resources as the key to prosperity. But as the housing downturn marches across the region and commodity prices soar, the old standbys have returned as key economic pillars.

Clearly, the industry powering much of the growth in the Mountain West over the past decade -- growth itself -- is limping. Residential real estate, while healthier than much of the country, continues to weaken, especially in larger cities like Boise and Salt Lake and in resort markets like Big Sky. The luxury second-home sector is also taking a hit, with high-profile projects like Tamarack Resort in Idaho and Promontory in Utah seeking refuge in bankruptcy.

Yet still-tight labor markets, continued job growth and commercial construction -- all of which are at least partly related to the natural resource boom -- have kept the overall economy in positive territory. [more]

NewWest.Net Conferences

The Designing the New West: Architecture and Landscape in the Mountain West Conference is wrapping up here in Bozeman at the historic Gallatin Gateway Inn. Put on by NewWest.Net and sponsored by the Sonoran Institute, the conference brought together designers from all over the country to explore innovative design ideas, identify best practices, and better understand how to bridge the gap between good architectural theory and sometimes-messy building practices in the fastest growing region in the nation.

A mix of presentations and engaging panel discussions tackled pressing Western issues like sustainable development, land design and the special challenges of urban, rural and resort design, historic preservation and affordable housing.

Click on the photo or here for a slideshow of the days' events. Click "more" for a recap of the conference. [more]

New Company will be MeiYa Technology

Boise's NBC affiliate KTVB is reporting that a deal between Micron Technology and Nanya Technology of Taiwan will create a joint venture to make Dynamic Random Access Memory.

The joint-venture company will be known as MeiYa Technology Corporation.

According to KTVB, "Each company is putting $550 million toward the joint venture through the end of 2009 – and both Micron and Nanya will own a 50% share in the operation."

Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is the most common kind of random access memory (RAM) for personal computers and workstations.
[more]

Protecting The Groundwater

The Colorado legislature pushed forward yesterday a bill that aims to protect groundwater and other natural resources from possible uramium mining in Colorado. HB1161, sponsored by state representatives from the Fort Collins area, would "require uranium miners to prove they could return groundwater to either pre-mining conditions or levels in line with existing state standards," reports Jason Kosena of the Daily Coloradoan.

While this bill, which is expected to clear the full Senate, is viewed as a victory for environmental activists, it could clear the way for the long-awaited rebirth of Colorado's dormant uranium industry.

In other energy news: new oil reserves in North Dakota will boost domestic production; Ken Salazar intros legislation to end the Roan Plateau drilling controversy; and natural gas prices shoot up in the region. [more]

missoula ducks downturn (mostly)

There's good news and bad news for potential home buyers in Missoula, according the 2008 Missoula Housing Report: While the national real estate downturn has affected Missoula, it hasn't been hit nearly as hard as other parts of the country.

The report, compiled by the Missoula Organization of Realtors and its Housing Report Coordinating Committee, was presented to the public Monday morning at the Double Tree Hotel.

Committee member George Masnick, who has been affiliated with the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard for 30 years, called the report a "mixed picture" -- the national housing crisis has been slow in hitting the Mountain West and Missoula in particular. Last year the number of homes sold in the city decreased for the first time since 2002, but it was still the third-highest total ever. [more]

Commercializing Energy From The Sun

Aiming to jump-start the U.S. solar-power industry, the Dept. of Energy will put up $13.7 million in the next three years to support university-led projects to bring less expensive solar technology to market.

Hit in recent months by falling stock prices and the cost of commercializing sophisticated photovoltaic technology, the solar industry needs to find ways to hasten the development of cheap, wide-spread arrays. Under its "Solar America" initiative, the Bush Administration has set a target of bringing the cost of solar energy down to levels competitive with conventional electricity production by 2015.

All together, the projects could reduce the cost of electricity produced by photovoltaic systems from the current levels, 18-23 cents per kilowatt hour to 5-10 per Kw/hour.

In other energy news: Sen. Salazar sponsors a bill to recover and treat "produced water" from oil and gas production; Colorado lawmakers finally figure out how to distribute revenues from federal mineral leases; Colorado School of Mines' mountainside 'M' goes green with LEDs.
[more]

New West News Brief

The divorce of millionaires Edra and Tim Blixseth has turned nasty, as they find themselves in a court-disputed power struggle over the operations of the Yellowstone Club, reports Scott McMillion of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

Edra claims that the Yellowstone Club is on the brink of bankruptcy due to overdue court settlements and drained assets for Tim’s Yellowstone Club World venture, McMillion reported from the Virgina City courtroom. She asks to be reinstated as the chief operating officer and have her estranged husband banned from the offices. Tim claims this is a legal move to circumvent the court process in California.

“There is no competent evidence that Blixseth has raised or can raise sufficient cash to solve the crisis and stabilize the club without effecting ‘firesale’ lot sales. He has also lost the confidence of the club’s creditors and employees,” as reported from Edra’s court papers.

Click here for the full story.

Update: The Chronicle reported after the continued hearing, Judge Loren Tucker stayed all motions from the 12 lawyers until a deposition is received from the Yellowstone Club's loan holder, Credit Suisse. Tim Blixseth will remain in his position overseeing the club at this time. It was also reported that Boston financier Sam Byrne backed out of purchasing the club due to the overdue settlement to Greg LeMond and other minor shareholders, and the bad publicity that followed. [more]

energy

After all the griping and gnashing of teeth over the new rules for oil and gas production in Colorado, it was perhaps inevitable that the actual draft regulations, which were released this week, were less inflammatory than the industry rhetoric would have led you to believe.

Brian Macke, regulatory compliance manager for Denver-based Delta Petroleum, told The Denver Post his company is "encouraged" by certain aspects of the proposed regulations, which call for more scrutiny of the potential environmental aspects of proposed drilling, among other changes.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Association, the most vociferous opponent of the new regime, was not mollified.

In other energy news: state legislature tries to save federal mineral leasing revenue for higher ed; NASA scientist James Hansen challenges Duke Energy CEO; Bank of America adopts clean –energy principles. [more]

Resort Market not holding

The application for a large-scale base area development at Bridger Bowl Ski Area, outside of Bozeman, Montana has been withdrawn.

After hundreds of public comments in April and May of 2007, the Bridger Canyon Partners asked the Gallatin County Planning Department to table their Planned Unit Development in order to continue discussion and come to an agreement with the Bridger Canyon Property Owners’ Association (BCPOA).

The Bridger Canyon Neighborhood Zoning, established in the 1970’s by the BCPOA, shaped strict rules and regulations about development in this pristine canyon, particularly when it came to the proposed 452 overnight units, 75 recreational home lots, a commercial village, a recreational lodge and employee housing.

The Bridger Canyon Partners decided the timeline, including reasonable agreement with the BCPOA, water rights and permitting, coupled with housing downturn, makes the project unfeasible at this time and withdrew their application on March 26th. [more]

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