Split Jet Stream, Skiers' Woe

It is not uncommon in fall/early winter for a split jet stream to set up over the interior west. What occurs is that a strong and dominant high-pressure system takes hold of the western US. Low-pressure systems originating in the Gulf of Alaska typically move southward along the coast of British Columbia and swing inland anywhere between Northern California and Washington, sweeping over Utah and providing our famously fluffy powder snow. However when a high-pressure system sets up over the west as it is currently, as these low-pressure systems start to move inland they encounter the high-pressure and split apart. With one part going north over the top of the high-pressure and another section swinging south under the high-pressure leaving Utah warm and dry. This is the pattern that we are currently in. But the high pressure is just far enough to the west that the northern branch of the jet stream does clip Utah bringing us occasional light snowfall. This is what is going to happen this Wednesday and Thursday with probably not more than 3-4 inches of snow for the northern Utah resorts while the central and southern Utah mountains could see several feet.HMMM, Could we possibly switch this pattern for May, when it snows continuously and we want sunshine?

On a brighter note, Deer Valley opens this Saturday and conditions should be pretty decent for opening day. I haven't heard what is going to be open yet but I would expect runs down Bald Mountain, Flagstaff and Northside should be open. The Stein Eriksen Lodge, located on the mountain in Silver Lake, Deer Valley, has received the Forbes 5-Star rating for its spa. This is the only 5-star rating for a spa in the state of Utah and only one of 4 throughout the country. This is quite a feather in the cap for Stein's, as it completely redid its spa two years ago and has made great efforts to bring up the level of service.

Last week I spoke of The Montage Hotel here in Deer Valley. This week I'd like to talk about one of Deer Valley's other great hotels, The St. Regis. The St. Regis Hotel, located in the Deer Crest area of Deer Valley overlooking both the town of Park City and the Jordanelle Reservoir is truly one of the luxury hotels here in town. The St. Regis first started selling units in 2005, prior to completion of the hotel, The hotel was substantially completed in December of 2009 and at that time was about 60% sold. Even during the downturn of the economy the majority of owners who purchased during the pre-construction phase ended up closing on their units, and this year there have been four new sales in the St. Regis. There are only ten units available for sale, a one-bedroom listed for $1,370,000, two-bedrooms listed around $1,500,000, and three-bedrooms listed anywhere from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 depending on location and views. The hotel has the space, feel, and services that you'd expect from the St. Regis and certainly lives up to its brand. The St. Regis features a wonderful heated patio overlooking the ski slopes of Deer Valley, which is a favorite gathering spot for lunch or early afternoon cocktails in the spring and Sunday afternoons throughout the summer.

To get to the St. Regis, guest ride a funicular--a European-style cog train--from lower Deer Valley to the terminal in the St. Regis. Riding down the funicular in the evening with the lights of Deer Valley sparkling is something all visitors to Park City should experience.

Ski season is here and going strong. I have been arduously working off my Thanksgiving dinner, as I hope you have. So plan your trip to Park City, come see me in my office at Silver Lake in mid-mountain Deer Valley and let's go skiing. In the meantime, do your snowdance, drink a glass of wine to the Snow Gods, or whatever else you feel works to bring on the snow!

Spring Skiing

Spring skiing in the Rockies takes on many shapes and forms. When we talk about spring skiing typically the thoughts turn to warm sunny days and soft or even slushy snow. But here in the Rockies, March and April can be very, very snowy, and it seems that the last few years some of the best powder skiing has been at the end of the season with this year being no exception. This is me skiing Deer Valley on Sunday!

It has been a crazy week with snow just about every day since last week Monday and the skiing just can not get any better. Deer Valley is now reporting a 118-inch base and it is snowing hard today with another foot of snow expected. But then the best news is, is that we are expecting warm sunny days starting Wednesday for classic spring skiing, at least until the weekend when more snow is forecast. This is a perfect time to come out and visit your favorite ski resort in the Rockies as the skiing is the best it’s been all year, crowds are down, and you can get great deals on lodging.

In real estate news, real estate sales continue to be quite strong (I’ll be doing an end of the season wrap up in mid April), but all indications are that this ski season's real estate sales are going to be substantially higher than last year. Of particular interest, to me, is the new montage hotel in Deer Valley. This is a high-end boutique luxury hotel located at the base of the Empire Lift with fabulous amenities and of course ski-in/ski-out access. The hotel opened for business December 9th of this year and prior to opening there were three pre-sales of the condos. The condos first went on sale at the end of last ski season. There have been five new sales this ski season with a penthouse for $6,000,000 just being sold last week. In addition there have been a couple of sales in the St. Regis, also located ski-in/ski-out in Deer Valley's Deer Crest area. After the 2009/2010 season with no new sales in St Regis, it is refreshing to see the high end buyer returning to the resort market. In looking at what is selling each day, I am seeing more sales over $2 mil than I have for quite some time. Is this a sign that the resort market is beginning to turn? Before jumping to any conclusions, let's see what the summer brings for sales, but this is certainly good news for resort real estate here in Park City/Deer Valley.

So stay tuned in a couple of weeks for the end of the year wrap-up which I think will be very interesting and until then come out and enjoy the fabulous spring skiing.

Latest Happenings In Deer Valley

While there has been a lot happening in real estate here in the last week or two, let’s start by talking about just how cold it is. Yesterday morning it was -9 and warmed up to a balmy 15 degrees. This was actually quite pleasant as earlier in the week the high temperatures stayed in the single digits. This has been one of the coldest December’s that I have seen in a long time, and it feels much more like January than December. While everyone has been running around complaining about the cold and many of the people in the older historic Park City homes are dealing with frozen water pipes, the ski resort snow makers are having a field day making snow. Last weekend before it got really cold I spoke with Bob Wheaton (president of Deer Valley) who said that Deer Valley is pumping 7000 gallons of water per minute in snow making. That was before it got really really cold, so that number has increased this week. The snow making has been so good that Deer Valley is opening up new runs and lifts every day. Even without natural snow, we will have the majority of the mountain open for the Christmas Holiday. HOWEVER, the forecast is for 2 to 3 ft of snow this weekend! The skies are already starting to cloud up and the south winds are blowing strong, indicating a major change in weather. If the forecast holds true, we should have almost all of the mountain open by next weekend…just in time for Christmas!

Now back to real estate. As I mentioned last week the St. Regis hotel in the Deer Crest area of Deer Valley has opened. I took a tour of the hotel last Wednesday. Riding the funicular to the St. Regis was just the start of an incredible tour. The bar, lounges, restaurant’s and lobby’s are all spacious and beautifully decorated with spectacular views from every window. The highlights are the ski out patio, which will be the new “beach” for the Deer Valley après ski scene and the outdoor pool which even without the setting of the ski run’s and the mountain back drop is beautiful. But no visit to the St. Regis would be complete without a visit to the spa. The massage rooms invite you to relax and unwind but what will be most enjoyable is the couples massage room with private whirlpool. The waiting room for the spa has a stream flowing through it with river rocks for the bed. A must visit on any trip to Deer Valley will be the St. Regis, either for lunch or après ski, or for a romantic dinner in a beautiful setting.

The St. Regis has now closed on 10 units with a low price $1,040,000 for a 991 sq foot for a 1 bed/1 bath unit to a high of $5,454,000 for a 2947 sq ft 4 bed/5 bath unit. Along with this there are 49 units under contract and getting ready to close. These range in price from a low $1,540,000 for a 1502 sq ft 2 bed/2 bath to a high of $8,916,550 for 6229 sq ft 6 bed/7bath unit.

Another new development in the Empire Pass area of Deer Valley is a condominium project called The Flagstaff. This building has just been completed, as was the St. Regis, and they have just started closing on units. Flagstaff had pre-sold 8 units prior to completion and 5 of those have closed. These range from a low of $1,902,000 for a 2140 sq ft 3 bed/4 bath condo to a high of $2,322,000 for a 2140 sq ft 3 bed/4 bath unit. There are 3 units with contracts waiting to close and range from a low of $2,710,000 for a 1749 sq ft 2 bed/3 bath to a high of $3, 020,000 for a 2324 sq ft 3 bed/4 bath condo. The Flagstaff development is at Empire Pass and is part of the Talisker Club with direct ski in/ski out access and in the common area features a children’s game room, an adult pub and a wonderful outdoor fire-pit.

Another condominium building that was completed a year ago, called Silver Strike in Empire Pass, is trying a novel approach to jumpstart the market. 15 out of 34 units have closed to date, but there has only been one sale in the last 18 months. In order to generate interest the developer of Silver Strike is going to auction 8 of the best units in January. The units will have a minimum bid which will be more than 50% off of the current list price. The developer is hoping that there will be sufficient interest so that the bidding will increase prices from the minimum. It will be very interesting to see how this transpires and at what price the condos will actually sell for. This could be an interesting venture and be aware that all condo’s will come with the full Talisker Club membership. Should you have an interest in registering for the auction, you will have to be pre-registered so contact me and I will set you up. It could possibly be a way to pick up a brand new ski-in/ski-out condo in Empire Pass at a significantly reduced price.

As you can see there is a lot going here in real estate and it is very exciting. I skied this morning and despite the lack of natural snow the skiing is quite good so come out to Park City, enjoy some terrific skiing and let’s go look at some fabulous real estate opportunities.

Big News In Park City

This past week the new St. Regis Hotel at Deer Valley opened to rave reviews. The bar, lounge and restaurant are spectacularly decorated and many people felt that it looked just like the St. Regis in Manhattan. Owners have begun closing on their units and with prices approaching $2000 per square foot; a new standard has been set in Deer Valley. What is very telling is that the first buyers wrote contracts 4 years ago and even after the economic downturn of the last 2 years, only two buyers are attempting to get out of their contracts. This is very telling about the quality and perceived value of the St. Regis. From speaking with the listing agent they expect to have closed on 20 units prior to the Christmas vacation at which time all of the available units will be rented out.

The second piece of big news this week is that Deer Valley will be opening Saturday December 5th.This fall we have only seen about half of our normal snow fall but fortunately it has been cold so Deer Valley will have a decent opening of man made snow. Even better is the forecast for snow…beginning this Saturday and continuing at least through next Wednesday. This is much needed and should get the mountain ready for the Christmas holidays. Part of the opening ski weekend tradition at Deer Valley is a two day celebrity ski race. This is always a fun event with many Hollywood celebrities running around mid-mountain Deer Valley.

In real estate news our real estate market continues to move along and is showing some signs of strengthening. While we are still definitely in a buyers market and I see many price reductions on properties every day I am beginning to see a few price increases. Is this a sign of things to come? While I do not think that we are out of the woods, the light at the end of the tunnel just might be a bit brighter.

The first couple of weeks in December and again the first couple of weeks in January are relatively quiet times here in park City and are an excellent time to visit and enjoy less crowded ski slopes and restaurants. Whether it is during these more quiet times or later in the year, make your plans to come visit Park City and experience for yourself why this has been my home for the last 25 years.