Mid-Year Golf Course Wrap-Up

Unfortunately I have to start this week's blog with some very sad news. A local park city skier, "Speedy" Jaret Peterson tragically took his life on Monday. Speedy grew up in Park City, won a silver medal at the Vancouver Olympics in freestyle and like so many others, lost his battle with alcoholism and depression. Speedy will be missed by all and hopefully there is a lesson to be learned here.

On a much brighter note, the town is absolutely bustling with activity. Walking around Main Street, the shops are full, the restaurants are full and everyone seems to be in a good mood. Could there be a correlation between the oppressive heat wave the rest of the country is seeing and our beautiful mountain weather? IF you're reading this while living anywhere in the Midwest or Eastern US, my full intent is to make you jealous by telling you our daytime temps are in the high 70s to low 80s, with nighttime temps in the 50s and 60s. Visitors might think that we live here for the winters and skiing, but it's really the summers. They are so beautiful!

2011 Mid-Year Real Estate Update

Well, summer is in full swing here in the mountains which means that we get daily thunderstorms. The days start out clear and warm, some time after noon big thunderstorms start to build, and then we get maybe an hour or so of rain late in the afternoon/early evening. Really keeps things fresh, clean and cool.

Last Saturday evening the Utah symphony performed at Deer Valley and featured the music of the Eagles. The symphony brought in a group whose lead singer was formerly with the group Kansas to perform for us with the symphony as backup. It was really a magical night with the sound of steel guitars combined with the symphony, playing all of the classic Eagles songs. And all of this under the stars at Deer Valley.

More summer festivals

Summer is in full swing in Park City, which means that we are awash in various festivals and music events. This past weekend, Park City was host to our annual Food and Wine Festival where vintners from all around the west gather and showcase their wines in a variety of venues. The two most popular events were the Friday afternoon Main Street stroll and Saturday afternoon at the Canyons Resort. For the Main Street Stroll on Friday afternoon, various vintners take over numerous restaurants up and down Main Street. Participants start off on the Plaza at the Town Lift bridge where a variety of food and wine booths start the revelry. Participants then wander up and down Main Street at their leisure, popping in at designated establishments to sample a specific vintner's wares. All of this is done with guidebooks and rating sheets to help everyone remember just which wines it was that they liked, which of course can be a problem after many hours of sampling. This is truly a great time and great people-watching as the streets are packed with festival-goers carrying wine glasses and big smiles. Saturday's event at the Canyons Resort is a little more structured as it all takes place on the Plaza at the base of the Canyons. There the various vintners set up booths around the plaza where participants freely move about the plaza sampling their favorite wines. Again a great event for people-watching and enjoying a beautiful afternoon in the mountains.

July 5th in the Mountains

July 4th has come and gone with all its celebrations, festivals, parades, fireworks, and of course, way too much barbecue. If you haven't experienced the 4th of July in a small town you're really missing out on a slice of Americana. Park City goes all out for the holiday with a de4lightfully funky and quirky parade, followed by music and activities in the City Park, including a Rugby tournament. It really is what America is about.

Being a ski town of course Park City's parade involves the Olympic athletes, luge, the freestyle-team jumping on trampolines and all the kids that make Park City so great. Here are some photos from the parade:

End of June in the Mountains

How can this be the end of June/first of July when summer just started a week ago? Well I suppose that's life at 7,000 feet. But right now it is so spectacular. There are still patches of snow on local mountains, aspens are bright, bright green, and the sky is the deepest blue that you can imagine. With all of this, a friend of mine skied Snowbird last Sunday and said it was absolutely fabulous. 100"+ base at mid-mountain and he could ski to the plaza at the base of the mountain; unheard of for this time of year. With the arrival of warm weather, all the creeks and rivers are raging with runoff. Everyone is being warned to stay away from the creeks and rivers as they are running high, fast, and cold. So far this spring four children have drowned in Northern Utah's streams and rivers.


As I mentioned in last week's blog, this past Saturday was the Savor the Summit on Main Street. Park City and the restaurants outdid themselves. Savor the Summit has been going on now for five years and the local restaurants now see who can out-do with decorations, menu and food. This year's festival was the largest I've ever seen and the restaurants certainly outdid themselves with their decorations. I was at the Talisker on Main table where they had made a canopy out of aspen trees. It was really quite impressive and seemed to be a focal part for everyone's pictures. Talisker served a 7-course dinner, complete with wine pairings that lasted well into the evening. (Of course, just to be sure, we bought plenty of wine ourselves.) This year, for the first time, when dinner concluded most of the restaurants provided live entertainment inside. This was a terrific addition to an already fabulous festival and kept everyone on Main Street until the wee hours of the morning. The only downside is that I was playing in a weekend golf tournament and had to be up at 6:30 Sunday morning, ready to play. While I was up at 6:30, I can't say that I was necessarily ready to play.

Summer Solstice

Tuesday is the summer solstice and the official start of summertime. Which here in the mountains means any snow that fell before the solstice belongs to last winter and any snow that falls after the solstice belongs to next winter. It hasn't snowed since Sunday the 19th, but the national weather service promises that this was the last storm for several months and I'm holding them to this promise. Next week Saturday, the 25th, Park city kicks off its start of summer with the "Savor the Summit" dinner. This is where the various restaurants in Park City line up tables down the middle of Main Street and serve dinner. The evening is filled with music, entertainment, and of course much socializing. This is the start to summer and the event has been sold out now for several weeks.

With all the rain and cool weather of this spring the golf courses are in fabulous shape but the mountain bike trails are still a little iffy. For hiking and biking you need to stay on either the lower elevations or South or West-facing trails as the North and East-facing trails still have a fair amount of snow on them. But with temperatures approaching 80-degrees this week, things will dry out quickly and we'll be in full swing.

The Montage Hotel and Spa in Empire Pass, Deer Valley, today announced their second release. If you've been following my blog you know that the Montage sold out its first release of 15 units last winter and is now on its second release of 15 units. This time, Montage is offering a buyer incentive of a 16% discount from list price. In addition, the Montage will be waiving HOA fees from the time of purchase to January 1, 2012. This is a terrific incentive for buyers wanting to get in on the low prices this summer but not intending to use until wintertime. The 15 sales that occurred during the winter were quite exceptional given the price range (over $2,000,000) and the economy. I think this demonstrates the quality of the construction at the Montage and the power of the Montage brand. If you're not familiar with Montage, they have two other hotels in Laguna Beach and Beverly Hills, California. The Montage is a very small boutique hotel offering very high-end finishes and service. For more information on the Montage, please contact me and I'll be happy to send you pricing and unit spec sheets.

It's greening up very fast in Park City now, and with the oppressive heat around the country this is the perfect time to come experience beautiful summer days in the mountains. Summertime temperatures in Park City are typically in the mid-70s to 80s, but the best part is our lack of humidity, frequently below 20%. As always, when you come out feel free to call me or stop in my office to find out about the latest happenings, restaurants that are a must-visit, and of course the best real estate buys in town.

June 14 In Park City

Before we get started with today's news in Park City, let's get to the really important thing: today is my birthday! I'd like to say sweet 16 but I couldn't even reverse the numbers and be accurate. Today is supposed to be a beautiful day, so I'm going to relax and enjoy the town. What I'm very tempted to do today is drive up to Empire Pass and ski Deer Valley. Having never done this on my birthday I think it would be very fun. And yes, there is still plenty of snow. If I do this look for a picture!

What I really enjoy this time of year is watching the aspens leafing out and the green line creeping up the mountain. Currently the aspens have leaved out to about 8,000 feet. The town of Park City is 7,000 feet and the tops of the peaks are 10,000 feet. Each day creeps up higher and higher, but high-elevation trees will probably not leaf out for another week or two. This year the highest trees will probably not leaf out until almost July and will start to lose their leaves late September, a very short growing season. You have to really want to be a tree to live at 10,000 feet.

In real estate news, our market continues to improve with strong sales through all aspects of the market. The numbers of sales for the first four months of 2011 in the greater Park City area are up 20% over 2010 with average sales price being for the most part flat. Like most real estate markets there are many subset markets, with each one being very unique and different. For example, the average sales price for single-family homes in Park Meadows is up slightly over 2010, condos in upper Deer Valley are pretty flat while condos at the Canyons Resort do not appear to have hit bottom yet. This year, 51% of all transactions in the greater Park City area were cash; not surprisingly, 88% of land sales were cash transactions. I say not surprisingly because of the difficulty and expense of financing land. 29% of the sales this year have been distressed sales with the golf course community of Promontory accounting for 25% of all of the distressed sales. Notices of default have been steadily decreasing since the first of the year and the number of listings across the board are down 14% for the same period last year. I see this as all pretty positive news for the resort real estate market as we are once again bucking the national trends.

Comparing what's going on in Park City to the national trends nationwide, numbers of sales are down about 30% nationwide from last year. Resort markets seem to be hit quickly when the economy takes a downturn but historically have recovered much faster than residential markets. Even during a downturn in the economy we hear from our visitors that they want to own their vacation properties but are nervous about the timing and perhaps their financial situation. As consumer confidence rebounds buyers tend to look at a vacation home purchase as a good financial investment rather than just pure enjoyment. Right now vacation home buyers appear to be feeling much more confident that the resort real estate market is near the bottom and that with low prices and dwindling inventory, now is the time to act. As I mentioned in last week's article the importance of having a local, knowledgeable and experienced agent working for you can not be overstressed. While prices in Park City are down to about where they were in 2006, offering some excellent investment opportunities, there are certainly specific areas where the savvy investor can find extremely attractive purchases.

Summer will eventually arrive, I promise. So come out and enjoy spectacular summer weather in the high country and of course when you do, be sure to stop in my office or give me a call to find out what's happening around town, the best restaurants, what events are a "don't miss," and where the best real estate buys are.