End of Season

Now that another ski season has ended it is a good time to reflect back on the past 4 months, and what an interesting time it was! Let’s first start with the easy part, the ski season. November was warm and dry. Everyone was quite nervous as December approached and there was very little snow on the ground. The early part of December wasn’t much better but at least it turned cold and snow makers were able to work their magic and the resorts opened on time.

Fortunately, about a week before the start of the Christmas holidays it started snowing and we were able to open up most of the mountain with excellent ski conditions. As seems to be the norm for the past few years, the Christmas Holidays saw a continuous stream of storms roll through, the strongest on Christmas Day when 2 feet of snow fell. Needless to say, the skiing for the Christmas-New Years week was fantastic, with visitors enjoying all the new snow and a few sunny days. January, February and March were a nice mix of warm sunny dry spells and snowy periods. The last two weeks of March and beginning of April seemed like one continuous snow storm with over 8 feet of snow here at Deer Valley.

With the economic melt down in the U.S., the excellent ski conditions saved the season. While final numbers have yet to be tallied, preliminary reports from Deer Valley are that they will end up with similar numbers to the 2006/2007 ski season. The property management companies (who definitely struggled this past year) are also saying that their numbers are similar to the Deer Valleys skier days. While property management companies are reporting about a 30% decrease in revenue from last year, the actual number of visitors staying in their properties was only down 8% and up 8% from the previous year. One result of the lagging economy was that while visitors still came to Park City, they tended to stay fewer days and spend less money while they were here. Restaurants in town are reporting similar numbers to the lodging companies, which is their revenue is down 20 to 30% from the last year. Taken as a whole, I look at these numbers in a very positive light. I spoke to a lot of skiers who were here for the first time, and were very impressed with what we have to offer, and said that they would definitely return. Along with the new visitors, our past guests continue to come back although they were more frugal this year. If we can show these kinds of numbers during a strong recession I feel that the future of Park City/Deer Valley is very bright.

Now for the tough part….the real estate market. From late fall through late winter it seemed that anyone who had an interest in purchasing real estate all said the same thing, “I’m in no hurry and I think the market is going lower, ill just wait”. Around the middle of March it seemed like we may have come close to the bottom of the market and buyers started buying again. Beginning in the middle of March and continuing through today, everyone has noticed an increase in activity and contracts written. Properties are being purchased all across the board from the very low end to multi-million dollar ski homes. Looking through our rose colored glasses we are seeing signs that consumer confidence is returning and that investors are feeling that this is the right time to buy. Interestingly, this morning I saw an interview with Donald Trump who could not stop saying that this was the best time to be buying real estate in the U.S. and that he was buying as much as he could. Over and over again he stressed that for anybody that could “Now is the time to buy real estate.” Other investors that I speak with have echoed the same sentiment.

Now that the ski areas are closed, this is a great time to take a deep breath and get ready for what we hope to be a busy summer!