Fall?

In an earlier blog I mentioned that August in the western mountains tends to start cooling off unlike much of the U.S. which is still sweltering underneath the summer sun. This August in particular has been quite cool with an early snow already and several early mornings of frost. This past weekend the mountain oak tree’s started turning and we are just beginning to see hints of red leaves spotting the mountain sides, a sure sign that Fall is near.

This past weekend Deer Valley Resort was the host to the annual Park City Jazz Festival. This was three days of great music, food and too much wine. Deer Valley is a terrific host in that they allow patrons to bring in picnic baskets and their favorite beverage. The headline act this year was Al Jarreau. While he is certainly getting up there in years, he can still perform with the best.
Now on to Real Estate news. Fall through early winter is quite active here, unlike Spring when the town is quiet and interest in real estate drops off dramatically. Buyers are looking to purchase their ski condo early enough to start booking rental reservations for the upcoming ski season. Sellers understand this so they are now putting units on the market so there is an excellent selection of properties to choose from. While we are certainly still in a buyers market I am beginning to see the first hints of a change. Several sellers recently have felt that the market, if not having already turned, is about to and are prepared to stay closer to the original asking price. I think that this fall and winter season may be quite interesting as buyers will still have the mindset of a bottoming real estate market and sellers may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Click here to read an article about the real estate "turnaround" or copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/27/could-the-end-be-near-housing-guru-shiller-senses-home-price-re/

First Snow

For the first time in my 25 years here in Park City it snowed in August. Last Saturday August 15th an unusually strong cold front brought the snow level down to mid mountain or about 8000 feet. While here in town at 7000 feet it was just a cold rain up at 10,000 feet an inch of snow accumulated. THIS IS WAY TO EARLY, particularly after a cold and rainy June. Six weeks of summer just is not enough. This was the second strong cold front to come through northern Utah in August with another forecast of cold weather to arrive this weekend. Hopefully this is a sign of a cold and snowy winter.

Ski resort towns are a different animal in that we actually look forward to snow storms during the winter months and the larger the storm the better. As Park City receives over 300 inches of snow per year we are very equip to handle snow and it generally takes a storm of upwards of 2 feet overnight to close schools or snarl traffic. It is not uncommon for storms to last a week or more.

But on to cheerier subjects….Real Estate. Comparing July 2009 vs. July 2008, this year 53 homes sold compared to 50 homes in 2008. Condominium sales saw an even larger change with 43 sales in 2009 compared to 33 in 2008. In addition, the average sales price rose from $645,000 in 2008 to nearly $738,000 in 2009. Interestingly, vacant land sales which have been on a decline for the last several years saw an increase from 18 sales in 2008 to 19 sales in 2009. See the graph posted above for sales trends for the last 14 months courtesy of the Park City Board of Realtors.

As fall approaches and buyers start looking for their ski property for this winter the upward trend that we have seen since late winter is very encouraging. I am hearing from many buyers that they feel now is the opportunity to pick up ski property while there are still bargains to be had. While the U.S. economy is certainly not out of the woods yet, it does appear that we are on a road to recovery. If the upward trend that we are seeing continues through the fall we may, by mid winter, be looking back to this time as the end of the bargains.

While it is certainly too early for autumn colors already, with the unusually cold weather I am expecting an early fall. September is one of the most beautiful months in Park City and if the leafs do start to change next month it will be a time not to miss.

New Developments

In spite of the struggling but improving economy new developments at the ski resorts here in Park City continue to move forward. This past week Dakota Mountain Lodge at The Canyons opened for business. Dakota Mountain Lodge features a Golden Door Spa and is operated under the Waldorf Astoria flag. As one would expect with these marquis names, the rooms are spectacular. The spa is both beautiful and comfortable and the dining rooms/lounges boast beautiful views of The Canyons Resort. During the construction period of this property almost all of the units sold and are now closing. Since the grand opening last week the occupancy rate has been extremely high.

At Deer Valley Resort the St Regis hotel is nearing completion and is about 2/3 sold out. St Regis is built directly on a ski run in the Deer Crest area of Deer Valley and boasts stunning views of the Jordanelle Reservoir, Deer Valley Resort, and downtown Main Street in Park City. The St Regis is expected to open for business this December and early walk-through’s indicate that this hotel will easily live up to the St Regis standard. St Regis has raised the bar for prices with units selling for around $2000 per square foot.

In the Empire Pass area of Deer Valley there are two new projects under construction. Right in the heart of the village at Empire Pass is a project known as Flagstaff located directly on a ski run and across from the members Tower Club Lounge. The Flagstaff building should be completed and ready for occupancy sometime this ski season. Flagstaff is part of the Talisker Club offering both golf course amenities at Tuhaye and private restaurants on Deer Valley for the owner/members. Flagstaff had the unfortunate timing of coming on the market right as the resort market started slowing down followed by the economic meltdown last September. In spite of this, 7 out of the 24 units have sold and I expect that with the building completion scheduled this winter we will see more activity.

Also under construction and scheduled for completion for the 2010/11 ski season is the Montage condo hotel located at the base of the empire lift in Deer Valley. Montage is a boutique hotel/spa and is only the 3rd hotel built in this new emerging chain. Montage will feature about 30,000 square feet of spa and restaurant area with magnificent views of the empire pass ski runs. The condominium units at Montage have yet to be offered for sale and we eagerly await details on pricing, floor plans and finishes. Montage should easily rival the St Regis for quality and will have a superior location. Stay tuned for further updates on Montage.

It seems that this may be an early fall or a very short summer. This past weekend an unseasonably strong cold front came through Utah dropping daytime high temperatures into the mid 50’s. While it has warmed up very nicely this week, another cold front is expected to arrive tonight once again dropping temperatures into the 50’s or low 60’s tomorrow. After having lost summer weather in June which was the rainiest June on record, to now start loosing summer weather in August just does not seem right. Summers in the mountains are short enough to begin with! While summer may be quickly coming to an end we still have a couple of large events remaining. Next Thursday is the start of the Park City Jazz Festival under the stars at Deer Valley, and then we close out summer with Park City’s Miners Day celebrations (Labor Day for the rest of the country) in early September. The cooler but still warm days of September are a magical time of the year and would be a terrific time to visit us.

Art Fest & More

This past weekend was the 40th annual Art Festival in Park City which draws artists from every corner of the country. Main Street is closed to traffic as artists set up their tents and display their wares up and down the street. This event typically draws around 100,000 people over the weekend and with the hot weather in Salt Lake we probably had more this year. The best time for the fair is Friday evening which is referred to as “local’s night” where entry is free and most of the merchants have already set up shop.

This is a great time to visit the merchants in an un-crowded and much more relaxed atmosphere as well as to visit with friends that you might not have seen for a while. It seemed that the entire town turned out this year for the Friday night local’s party. In conjunction with this several of the nicer restaurants in town were offering dinner specials. A group of us visited Whaso where they were offering $5 appetizers and $10 entrée’s. Somehow we still managed to spend $70 per person, perhaps cocktails and wine had something to do with it? All in all a great event and the quality of the fair continues to increase each year. When speaking with the artists late Saturday night they were quite pleased with the sales they were making, particularly in light of the economy.

The Park City Arts Festival is one of the more desirable art festivals during the summer months for the artists with many more applications submitted than can be accommodated. This allows the festival organizers the luxury of being able to choose the best in each category and to not have too many duplicates.

In real estate news the “Golf Course Wars” are on. Two of our newer courses, Tuhaye and Red Ledges, are offering amazing incentives to attract buyers. Tuhaye is offering golf course frontage lots for sale starting at $350,000, they will carry the financing for 3-5 years at an extremely favorable interest rate, will make the first years interest payments on the loan, and will pay two years of club dues. Also included in the purchase price is the club membership currently valued at $100,000.

Red Ledges, the newest of the golf course communities, is including the club membership of approximately $100,000 in the purchase of a lot are also including a $95,000 Mercedes.

These incentives are being offered right up front by the developer, before we start negotiating and asking for other concessions.

As the U.S. and World stock markets continue to perform well we have to ask, “How long will this last?” With consumer confidence increasing and a large supply of properties to choose from, this summer is the time to be a buyer. Prices here in Park City have dropped back to about 2005 price levels so there appears to be a strong probability of an upside for real estate purchase this year. While I have said this many times before in these blogs, I cannot emphasize enough that we are approaching the time when many buyers will kick themselves and say “Why didn’t I buy in 2009?”

In the Western Mountain Resorts unlike most of the country August is a time when the weather starts cooling. Our hottest month of July is behind us and both daytime and nighttime temperatures become noticeably cooler. If where you are is still smoldering in the summer heat plan a vacation to the Rocky Mountains and experience warm days and cool nights with Park City only a 30 minute drive from Salt Lake international airport we are the easiest resort to reach.