It's Still Winter

Winter, winter, go away, come back in October! Woke up with another 4" of snow on the back barbecue and it has been snowing hard all day, probably close to a foot of new snow. As was said this morning, if you are surprised by this morning's snow then you are new to Park City. The big problem yet to come is going to be when it does finally warm up (and it will) and all of the snow comes down quickly. The year 1983 saw a spring like this and it resulted in severe flooding in Salt Lake City. So much so that people were canoeing on State Street (one of the main thoroughfares through Salt Lake City). In late April, the snowpack should be diminishing with warm sunny days, but instead it is at worst staying even and lately been increasing. As I said earlier, it will warm up and when it does there will be a lot of snow coming down the mountain. A week ago, the mountain snowpack was at 140% of normal. This week it has risen to 197% of normal. On Tuesday, Snowbird eclipsed it's previous season record snowfall and has now recorded over 690" of snowfall, with much more to come!


Last week in my year-end recap, I talked about what is happening inside the city limits. This week, let's expand our range to take in the surrounding areas but still within the Park City school district. This will include areas such as Silver Springs, Pinebrook, Jeremy Ranch, Silver Creek, Glenwild, Promontory and Tuhaye. Again comparing 2010 to 2011 first quarter, let's start with single family homes. Inside the city limits we showed a strong increase in the number of sales and this continued in the outlying communities. Outlying areas, not including the city, had 47 homes sold in 2010 compared to 58 in 2011. Adding up the outlying areas with inside the city limits there were 73 in 2010 compared to 99 in 2011. Dollar volume rose slightly from $113,700,000 in 2010 to $117,700,000 in 2011. But as we saw last week, the average sales price of homes sold in 2011 was less than in 2010.

Condo sales showed similar numbers to inside the city limits. In 2010, 41 condos sold compared to 32 in 2011 and in outlying areas dollar volume in 2010 was $12,900,000 compared to $6,900,000 in 2011. Condo sales for the entire Park City school district showed 133 sales in 2010 compared to 121 in 2011 with a total volume of $152,600,000 in 2010 compared to $79,900,000 in 2011.

Does this mean that, for a homeowner, the value of their home has dropped 30-40% over last year and for condo owners close to 50%? Absolutely not. The values of homes and condos are very close to what they were last year but buyers are purchasing at the lower end of the market. What I mean by this is, if we say that home prices in lower Deer Valley range from $1.5 million to $3.5 million, buyers are purchasing more homes closer to $1.5 million than the $3.5 million. Another interesting statistic is that in looking at last week's sales activity, the list to sold price was very close to 95%. Does this mean that prices are rising? Again, absolutely not. What is happening though is that sellers have brought their prices down to realistic levels and buyers are feeling that the prices now represent proper value. Continuing the trend that started at the beginning of the year, we are seeing more and more multiple offer situations. I'd mentioned in previous articles that we are advising our buyers that if they find the property they want and it is priced properly to make an offer as it very likely won't be around long, and this is certainly proving to be the case. What I am also finding very interesting is the level of activity for this time of year. Typically late April/early May is our slowest time for sales, but not so this year. Buyers are in the market for deals and are acting on the opportunities presented to them.

Spring is often described as the time of the year when winter and summer battle for control. Right now, winter is winning but we hope that summer will quickly turn the tide. For now, enjoy your spring and make plans to visit the mountains during the glorious summer months which are filled with music and a variety of outdoor activities.