Durango retirement (Center, Bayfield, Silverton: short sales, real estate, foreclosures)

[Bigdawg 1]

Wife and I looking at Durango for retirement any comments if real estate will continue to drop. Bayfield would also work. Hospital ratings comments.

Thanks

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Bigdawg 1

Wife and I looking at Durango for retirement any comments if real estate will continue to drop. Bayfield would also work. Hospital ratings comments.

Thanks

No one really knows what prices will do. Doom and gloom types will tell you that the bottom is going to drop out on all real estate ... any .... day ... now ... but they've been saying that for years on here. My best opinion is to look for short sales and/or foreclosures to find properties that are markedly reduced, as opposed to those owners who mistakenly think they can demand and get the level of prices from 2005-2006.

We have only a few people on this board who live in/around Durango and who bring us real boots on the ground knowledge of specifics about Durango. I doubt we have people who can address hospital ratings, so I'd suggest you google to find the usual hospital rating websites.

[Bigdawg 1]

Thanks
How about weather and amount of snow in town (no big deal for me but would be for wife)

[Mike from back east]

I know that areas not far from Durango (e.g., Silverton) get clobbered with snow if they're IN the San Juan Mountains, but IIRC, Durango rarely gets anything like that, though heavy dumps can occur.

About halfway down this page is a graph of snowfall.

[CAVA1990]

At this point prices will likely depend mainly on what happens with interest rates. If you find a good deal now as Mike suggests with foreclosures or short sales you should probably go for it, particularly if you're financing and can take advantage of the low interest rates. Once those are out of the system prices will likely increase at least at the inflation rate (2-3%) annually.

I know they recently opened a new medical center there.

[NW Crow]

I ended up in the Durango hospital once. I won't give a public evaluation beyond that it wasn't "perfect" and it wasn't "terrible". I wouldn't encourage generalization from that one event and would be cautious to give too much weight to any single personal opinion. I'd say they are big enough to have the staff and equipment for most things and having such a facility in the area is a plus in general and a plus compared to smaller cities and towns. There are bigger hospitals and probably better and worse. Bigger hospitals / more specialists might have some advantage for some people, maybe not relevant for most. For hospital ratings, if you really wanted to get into it, you'd probably want to look at accreditation reviews or such though I don't know how accessible that data is or how easy it would be to give it a fair evaluation as a layperson. The facility staff or ex=staff probably could say things and they know a lot more but it would still be somewhat hard to know how to evaluate that off-hand as perspectives and objectivity can vary.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by NW Crow

I ended up in the Durango hospital once..

I imagine you're talking about Mercy. Here are the websites for it and the Animas Surgical Center:

Animas Surgical Hospital - Durango Colorado

Mercy Regional Medical Center - Durango, CO

The OP might want to go to some of the healthcare rating sites to find out how they stack up.

[NW Crow]

Yes it was Mercy but it was the old Mercy.

I hadn't looked before but I guess there are a lot of health care rating sites. This is one of the bigger ones:

Hospitals in Durango, Colorado (CO) - Hospital Ratings, Cost, Length of Stay, Affiliated Physicians, More...

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by NW Crow

Yes it was Mercy but it was the old Mercy.

Well there's the old Mercy and then there's the old, old (original) Mercy which was torn down in the 60s.

[NW Crow]

Ok. The old, old was before I was in Durango.