Todd Anderson

Working as a REALTOR® in the Park City and Deer Valley Utah area puts me in a place to get a lot of questions from visitors. This is especially true while I am out enjoying the things that make Park City such a great place to live or vacation; skiing, biking, playing golf, etc. People are always curious about the prices of homes and condominiums in the area; whether or not they have any interest in purchasing Park City or Deer Valley property.

When I tell people the asking price or recent sales price of one of the homes or condominiums in the area, they commonly translate the price into a per square foot price in an effort to make a comparison to their home town. With it currently being ski season, the questions are often related to slope-side homes and condominiums with ski-in, ski-out access and projects currently under construction like the St. Regis, Montage Hotel, and Flagstaff Condominiums. Quick math puts the prices of most of these developments in the $1200 to $2000 per square foot. "Wow" and "Maybe you can sell me a spot to stand" are common responses once the math has been done.

One quick comment regarding the scarcity of true ski-in, ski-out property in the Deer Valley area, and for that matter, in the world often times puts a better perspective on the prices in Park City, Utah. These are also new homes and condominiums for sale with top grade custom finishes and upper end if not professional grade appliances. I remind people that the prices change dramatically as you move away from the slopes.

It is not unlike homes with views versus those without, or homes that are ocean front versus those that are a few blocks inland. On a recent trip to San Diego, I pulled a few for sale flyers from ocean front homes; after doing the math, I found that small homes (under 1000 sq. ft.) built 20 years ago or more are commanding prices well over $2500 per square foot.

Waterfront homes share a similar scarcity to slope-side homes; similarly resort towns all have a common scarcity in whatever makes them a great place to vacation usually makes them a very desirable place to live; if not for employment opportunities, definitely for lifestyle and quality of life reasons.

Whatever quality makes a resort town desirable and the proximity to that attraction, whether it is the ski slopes, golf course, ocean, or bay; the closer you are, the more scarce and more costly the property.

Deer Valley, not unlike other luxury resort towns, puts a premium on its amenity adjacent properties. But don't let those properties scare you away from Park City as a whole; there is a wide array of ownership opportunities available for the vacationer as well as someone wanting to call Park City, UT home. The YouInParkCity.com Group can help you find anything from a premium ski-in, ski-out property to one just minutes away at a discounted price. You'll have to make the decision of the mountains versus the beach.

The Park City Board of REALTORS® last week released statistics for the year ending December 31, 2008. The February press release shows that sales in the Park City, Utah area were down by nearly 50% in dollar volume versus 2007. The sales dollar volume at just over $1 billion was roughly equal to the sales of 2004.

Looking at the sales a little closer and narrowing the scope of the statistics to only include Park City (not outlying areas such as Kamas, Francis, Heber and Midway) and focusing on sales by property type and unit volume, the statistics show that: single family home sales were down by 43%, condominium sales were down 41%, and leading the fall was vacant land sales which fell by 75% in unit volume.

Local REALTORS® are quick to note that median sales prices have only fallen slightly and that Park City and Deer Valley fundamentals remain strong. The president of the Park City Board of REALTORS® was quoted as saying: "People buy homes in Park City because it is based on a lifestyle choice. Our market has never been primarily driven by speculation and investment our product is very diverse and buyers have a wide range of properties that fit their needs and budget. Park City's world class resort facilities and year-round recreation opportunities will continue to make our community an attractive choice for many buyers."

While this may be true, there is no denying that our market is affected by what goes on in the rest of the country and the rest of the world. The Park City and Deer Valley real estate markets have many opportunities and choices for buyers; something that wasn't true while the market was soaring.

Vacant lot sales indicate that home building is down (Park City building department permits concur) and will be for the near term. There are a number of very high-end properties due to open in the near future including the St. Regis Deer Crest Resort, Montage Resort at Deer Valley and Dakota Mountain Lodge which is being serviced by the Waldorf Astoria and includes the Golden Door Spa. The impact of these resorts and the associated real estate sales will be felt in the next two years.

Sales of new construction condominiums played a major part in Deer Valley sales in 2007 with over half of the 180 condominiums that sold being newly built. Sales of condominiums in Upper and Lower Deer Valley combined with Deer Crest and Empire pass were down 67% in 2008, but there were far fewer new condominiums available.

Real Estate numbers nationwide show slow sales and many point to the fact that we still have sales in the Park City area as a good sign. To discuss how these sales numbers affect you and your decision of whether or not to buy or sell realty in the Park City and Deer Valley, Utah area call or email your www.YouInParkCity.com Keller Williams Park City Real Estate agent today.

The national and global economies have affected the Park City real estate market. We know that at our market peak, Buyers were coming to Park City to buy second homes and vacation property from all over the world. Loose lending standards made finding the money for a second home easy. Housing prices rose everywhere. Higher property values wherever the Buyer's home happened to be made for great equity to borrow against for the purchase vacation property. We know that all this has come to an end with the bursting of the housing bubble. Short sales and foreclosures are now a staple story item for the nightly news. Many boom cities have seen home values drop by 40% or more. Stories abound about the ability to purchase bank owned and distressed properties for truly pennies on the dollar compared to what they sold for just two years ago. In Park City, we're often asked by visitors where the deals are here.

A recent look at the Park City area Board of REALTORS® multiple listing service showed 1871 active listings (653 single family homes, 798 condominiums and 420 parcels of vacant land). Of these, only 26 were listed as a short sale, bank owned or in foreclosure. That is less than 1½ percent of the total number for sale. National figures while the real estate market was booming put the "normal" foreclosure rate at around 3%. Does this mean that Park City has somehow not been affected by the national and global economic changes? No.

Park City and Deer Valley real estate have been impacted by the global economic changes, just not to the extent of Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix and Southern California. The scarcity of land along with tough hillside builds and tight city regulations have meant that the housing boom did not leave Park City overbuilt. Changes in the market have occurred and prices have fallen from their peaks, but there appears to have not been the speculation and dependence on property appreciation to fund loans here that has lead to the demise of markets in other areas.

The local economy in the Park City and Deer Valley area is only beginning to feel the pinch of the national and global economic downturn. I cannot remember previously seeing signs on Main St stating that restaurants are not hiring. A look through the local paper shows few job opportunities (in a "normal" winter, service and tourism industry jobs are abundant). We are starting to experience job losses. It is possible that the downturn may be just beginning here. Or it is possible that the effects of current low interest rates and the push for new jobs on a national level will turn everything around quickly and all our market will see is just a slight downturn. Only time will tell.

All real estate is local. Are there deals to be found in Park City, Utah? Absolutely. Are there short sales, bank owned and distressed properties? Yes. Will you be able to find 5 homes in a row all in some state of foreclosure and buy them all up for a price that previously would buy one? No. Have the fundamentals of what makes Park City and Deer Valley a desirable place to live or vacation changed? Not at all!

For more information on Buying or Selling homes, condominiums and land in the Park City and Deer Valley Utah area contact the YouInParkCity.com Group.

This is a follow-up post from Oct 20, 2008. On the 22^nd of October Park City's local paper The Park Record ran an article stating that average home prices in Park City have shown only a 5% decrease while sales volume is down over 40%. In the previous YouInParkCity.com blog post it was noted that some Sellers "don't have/or need to sell" as a reason why prices have remained somewhat stable in Park City and Deer Valley. The homes and condominiums that are currently selling have represented strong values and have been some of the most aggressively priced. So the question is "why doesn't everyone lower their price?"

We want to explore a possibility beyond Sellers being "stubborn" or not truly needing to sell unless they get the price they want. Another reason why Sellers haven't lowered their price may be because they truly can't afford to do so.

While statistics can show that pricing has remained stable here in Park City, it can also be shown that many of the properties that are selling have sales prices close to those of 2005. For a Seller that bought last year or on 2006, they are not necessarily "upside-down" but they may be "underwater" or in a negative equity position. These owners aren't necessarily in danger of losing their home, but they are in a position of being "stuck". While these owners may wish to move, they would need to bring a check to the closing and actually pay to sell their home. To a lesser extent, Sellers may lose the money they had put down originally. For many residential homeowners the majority of their wealth is tied to home equity. They don't have the ability to walk away from equity they had, or start over again with none.

Some national data has shown that nearly 20% of homeowners that bought their home since 2006 may be in a negative equity position. For many of these homeowners, there are only a few ways out of their home and most of them have very harsh financial impacts. Frequently, these homes stay on the market at a sales price that doesn't reflect the current market conditions. Prices may stay stable due to the fact that these owners truly can't afford to lower their price.

Submitted by Todd Anderson

Todd@youInParkCity.com

I was speaking with a fellow REALTOR® here in Park City last week and she stated that she was surprised that prices here in Park City and Deer Valley hadn't fallen as much as she had expected. While news articles from around the country show home values dropping as much as 30%, Park City hasn't seen very dramatic price changes. Many people ask "why?" Here are some of the contributing factors.

The reasons vary somewhat according to the property involved; primary residences and second or vacation properties. In this article we'll focus on the latter. Second homes and vacation properties are a luxury item and they are bought by people that can afford them. As much as 70% of Park City and Deer Valley area property can be attributed to second homes and vacation property. The majority of these property owners have relatively small or no mortgages on these properties and most have an "if it doesn't sell at this price, I'll just hold onto it" attitude. Few of the second home owners have a true need to sell. In the sellers mind, the property is worth ‘x' and in time it probably will be. Sellers here in Park City have "staying power" and while overall sales volumes are currently down 45%, prices are holding somewhat steady. Sellers are willing to wait, and Buyers are not necessarily willing to jump at prices that have held steady which leads to more property on the market. This Seller's resistance to drop their prices and ability to wait is a major reason that prices in resort towns don't fall as much as national averages in a down market.

A driving force behind the national market downturn was the sub-prime and "risky" mortgages. Park City saw relatively few of these mortgages. It may seem odd from the outside, but few of the second homes with values over $1M have any mortgage debt at all. Historically, fifty percent of real estate purchases in Park City are cash. In general even with as easy as credit was recently, it was still tougher to mortgage secondary homes as creditors know that if there is trouble, these are the first thing debtors walk away from. That is not to say that sub-prime mortgages in our market don't exist or that there are no property owners that are in financial trouble, only that this number is smaller in relation to the Nation's trouble spots.

Another reason that Park City second home and vacation property values have stayed strong is that things the have not changed much here. People still want to be here, whether it is to vacation or to live. Park City is a beautiful, easily accessible. The city offers endless recreational opportunities and a great climate. Park City's economy has not been greatly impacted by the national "crisis". In addition, the Utah economy has been touted as one of the best in the country. Finally, there is scarcity built into Park City. There are only so many places in the world that are like our city, and much of the town is truly "built out".

These are some of the reasons that Park City has not seen a dramatic change in its prices as compared with other spots in the Country. That is not to say that prices in Deer Valley and Park City have not fallen; they have. As noted earlier, pricing remains fairly steady, but many of the properties that have sold were priced aggressively and represent pricing similar to 2005. There are good values and realty opportunities in Park City, and the situation for each seller is unique. Just don't expect to see rows of homes for sale with foreclosure signs in every other window as you search for a place to live or vacation in Park City.

For more detailed information about recent price trends in Park City, Utah go to: www.YouInParkCity.com. Price trends, highs and lows, averages and days on market information is available for each Park City neighborhood.