Sundance and More

The Sundance Film Festival started January 17th and runs through the 27th. Sundance is the largest independent film festival and attracts filmmakers, producers, celebrities and onlookers from all over the world. During the festival, the town is full of filmmakers trying to sell their films, celebrities following the party scene, and visitors looking for the next hit film. It is a very exciting and busy time in our mountain town. Over the years, many films have come out of Sundance to become successful hits with national distribution.

This past weekend I was in Telluride, Colorado for a conference of resort Realtors from the Rocky Mountain west. Everyone is reporting that their market is strong, sales prices are continuing to rise, and dollar volume sold will be equal to or greater than last year. This is very different from what everyone is hearing in the national press about the housing slump. While the resort real estate markets are certainly not immune to the national market trends, we do seem to be somewhat insulated. Everyone is seeing that buyers, while cautious, are still looking for vacation property and have the means to purchase. We are fortunate in that our buyers are not subprime buyers and while the mortgage issues do make it more difficult, they are able to qualify for loans and purchase. Consistent throughout the resorts was activity through the Christmas holiday. Everyone felt that this Christmas was busier than usual with visitors looking at properties. While this did not translate to many sales, that is not unusual. We all find that our buyers who look over Christmas return later in the season or during the summer months to purchase. The entire US is having a great ski season and this translates to all of the ski areas doing well. I expect that the 2007-2008 ski season will end up a record one for Park City as well as the other western resorts. With a record number of visitors in town we are all hoping that this equates to more buyers and more sales.

It has snowed here in Park City 29 of the last 36 days and is snowing hard again this morning. If you have not visited Park City in the past this is the year to see what Utah snow and skiing is all about.