The Olympics have come to an end and it was amazing to hear all the mention of Park City, the Park City athletes, and the training center’s here. While Vancouver, B.C and Whistler were of course the focus of the attention but the number of times Park City was mentioned and the publicity that we received would be hard to quantify in dollar terms. Park City really has become known as the training center for the winter Olympic athletes.
In Real Estate News, a few days ago I toured the Lookout at Deer Valley, which is a development that is going to auction off 7 of their remaining 13 units at the end of March. I was quite pleasantly surprised to see that a couple of the units that will be auctioned off were prime units in location and floor plan. Three of the units in the auction are stand alone units living more like a home than a condo and one of them, unit #10, has outstanding views looking west towards Flagstaff Mountain and Empire Pass. For a buyer possibly needing a condominium with more space and does not mind that the home is not directly on the mountain or ski/in-ski/out, I think there will be some exceptional buys during this auction. The Lookout at Deer Valley condos offer terrific views and have on-site concierge to shuttle guests to and from the mountain. This is going to be a project worth looking at and bidding on and I expect that they will ultimately sell for significantly below the retail prices.
In looking at real estate numbers for the first two months of 2010 I am very encouraged. The number of units that sold during January-February, 2010 was double the number of units compared to January-February, 2009. In looking back to January-February, 2009, I realize those two months were about as bad as the real estate market could have ever been so just about anything would be an improvement. But to see the numbers double is very encouraging! What will be telling will be how the rest of the ski season stacks up. So, stay tuned for the “End of the Year Wrap Up” which will be available towards the end of April.
Since the middle of January we have had consistent small snow storms that have kept the skiing really quite good. All three resorts, Park City Mountain Resort, The Canyons Resort, and Deer Valley Resort, are reporting over a 6 ft base so the rocks are covered and now it is just the snow surface that matters. With several snow storms a week, like we have been receiving, the show surface stays quite soft and delightful. With no big powder dumps this year we are fine tuning our groomed slope techniques as well as the bumps. March is here with a much higher sun angle, warmer days, and truly delightful skiing. Come out and visit Park City and enjoy spring skiing in the Rockies.
