Since the Great Recession hit, the price of a home in celebrated ski town Aspen ain't what it used to be. The median sales price of a single-family home was down by eight percent last year. But if you're bargain-hunting, keep in mind that the median home price in the ritzy resort is about $5 million, according to a report by the Aspen Appraisal Group (via the Aspen Times). Still, that price is the lowest in years, which seems to have caught the appraisal group by surprise, since property prices in Aspen generally don't fall during economic downturns. “There is no question that in this current downturn both volume and value have been impacted,” writes Randy Gold, a principal in the appraisal group who has worked in the Aspen and Snowmass Village market for about three decades. A selling trend in the region--and other well-to-do pockets across the nation--is using an auction, CNN notes in a report highlighting the work of North Carolina-based Grand Estates, which has sold hundreds of homes in the $1.5 million to $10 million range in auctions at some of the country's most exclusive resort areas.