Strange Days Indeed: After 53 inches of new snow, 50,000 Sundance visitors, and 8000 participants in the Women's March down Main Street, there was a noticeable lull in real estate activity. There were 41 pended sales reported by the Park City Multiple Listing Service in the week ended 1/27/17. 26 closings and 56 new listings were reported during that week. It took most of the day to get to the post office and stand in the Starbucks line for coffee, but the powder skiing attracted more local interest than the movies. Amnesia seemed to be a major problem - the most popular answer to the question "can you please move your car?" was "Do you know who I am?" Hopefully many of our visitors noticed the beauty and good times all around them and will return for a more leisurely look at our little community. After last week's post which was mostly devoted to bragging about what a strong real estate year we had in 2016, further examination of the details revealed some interesting situations. To show why there really is no answer to the question "Hows the Park City real estate market?", you can focus on our absorption rate by area and price. Within the city limits, condos priced less than the $685,000 median price sold in an average of 3.4 months while those priced over $685,000 sold in an average of 13.9 months. Looking at the Snyderville Basin and Jordanelle areas where the median condo price was $474,650, sales below the median took only 1.5 months and sales above the median took 6.1 months. In town single family home sales below the $1,691,600 median price took 4.7 months and sales above the median took 16.7 months. In the Snyderville and Jordanelle areas, the median price is now $970,000 and single family home sales below that figure took 3.1 months to sell and sales above the median averaged 11.6 months. Although available inventory in some key areas like Park Meadows are severally depleted, other areas seem to show increasing inventory and are meeting price resistance. The first area of note is Empire Pass in Deer Valley where condo sales were down 32% from 2015, average prices were down 12% and median prices were down 17%. If the 5 2016 sales and 20 listings at Montage Deer Valley are removed that leaves only 14 2016 sales, but 46 active listings that average only $881/SF and those listings represent some of Deer Valley's best ski access. Although I can't prove it, I believe the clouds surrounding the Takisker Club for the past few years have had a major negative impact on the units built in Empire Pass from 2005 - 2008. Several factors lead me to believe that Empire Pass resales represent some of the best opportunities now available in the Park City luxury market. First of all the clouds are lifting at Talisker Club. The club is moving forward into the final phase of receivership and launching an advertising campaign to reintroduce Talisker Club to the Park City community. The public website - http://www.taliskerclub.com - has been upgraded and contains information on the changes that will add a big plus to Empire Pass property ownership. Last season and so far this season is proving that the "Vail Effect" extends beyond the Park City Resort. After planning for an 8% skier day drop off in 2016 to account for new Epic Pass competition, Deer Valley instead experienced a 7% increase. The early success of new condominium projects in Empire Pass and Canyons Village shows that current Empire Pass resale prices are undervalued. The 27 unit One Empire Pass project now under construction already has 15 reservations at prices over $1,300/SF or about a 30% premium over Empire Pass resale inventory where no delayed gratification is required. Pre-sale prices of new projects at Canyons Village are showing only slightly less per SF numbers with construction in the very early stages or scheduled to begin later in 2017.

The second luxury property niche that seemed buried in the Old Town statistics was the contemporary new construction condominiums being built above the retail level on Main Street. After the 820 Park Ave project was completed and sold at around $900/SF, 27 other similar units in 5 separate projects have recently been finished and listed at an average of $1,118/SF (prices range from $901/SF to $1,652/SF). DOM now range from 28-322 and the first 4 sales appear to involve discounts prior to completion. The question to be answered this season is "Why does living over the store on Main Street justify prices equal to, or greater than, prime Deer Valley ski access or full service luxury hotel service and amenities at Montage, St. Regis or the new Stein Eriksen Residences?" If you figure out the answer to that question, please share it with me.