Winter has arrived.

This past Saturday, winter finally arrived in Park City. Snow, cold, and more snow. It has now been snowing pretty consistently for three days. And while we’ve only received about a foot of snow out of this, it is white and looking very much like Christmas around here. The cold weather, high temperatures only in the teens, has allowed the resorts to make incredible amounts of snow. Snowmaking is running around the clock and the resorts are opening up new runs everyday. With Christmas week starting Friday, the snow and cold come just in time.
Last week I attended a panel discussion with several developers from Vail and Lake Tahoe. An interesting point from the developers in Vail was that when the Ritz-Carlton opened is doors in Beaver Creek they saw an immediate change in the type of visitor. The Ritz-Carlton brought a higher level of visitor that Vail had not seen before and they also experienced a sudden increase in real estate and a jump in prices. The point of this story is that we have two very high end hotels in the process of construction-the St. Regis and The Montage. The St. Regis is anticipating opening in 2009 and The Montage in 2010. The experience of these developers from Vail indicates that we will also experience a new type of visitor to Park City and, very likely, an increase in real estate prices. Factor into the mix lower real estate prices and a difficult economy and buyers of real estate in Park City this year could be feeling pretty smug in a year or two.
While the Christmas holidays are rapidly approaching, different property management companies tell me that there are still vacancies so make your plans and come visit Park City this Christmas.