Your Second Home: Utah & Colorado
05/03/2004
Rick Guerin had one condition when shopping for a vacation home: It had to have it all.“I wanted a house that I could ski from in winter and fly-fish, mountain bike and ride my horses from in summer,” says the 74-year-old investor. It also had to be easy for family and friends to get to, yet private enough so it would balance his hectic life in Beverly Hills.
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Condos at Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City, Utah. (Click image to enlarge)He found the perfect spot
at the Colony at White Pine Canyon, a collection of single-family homesites in
Park City, Utah. The large lot size allowed Guerin to build a 13,000-square-foot
home as well as a six-stall horse barn that also has private guest
accommodations. He can gear up in his ski room, step out the door and, with a
few pole plants, be on the trails of the Canyons, the country’s fifth-largest
ski resort. In the summer he can saddle up or ride his mountain bike on a
22-mile loop that winds through private forests and meadows.
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The Colony in Park City, Utah, is offering ski-in/ski-out homesites from 4 to
113 acres and custom houses that start at $5.9 million. (Click image to enlarge)“It’s nice to
have one house do it all,” says Guerin. Many like-minded second home buyers want
their vacations to be immediate and hassle-free. They want to get away without
taking too long to get there, and when they arrive they want everything taken
care of—seamless airport transfers, refrigerators stocked, sidewalks shoveled,
and dinner and tee times reserved. Guerin sees his vacation property as an
extension of his Beverly Hills home. He spends several weekends during the ski season and weeks at a time during the summer there
entertaining his family of 10 and numerous friends. When his private plane lands
in Salt Lake City, he has a 40-minute drive to his home.
“The proximity to
the airport is the biggest selling point for us by far,” says Steve Chin of Deer
Valley Real Estate, where the second home market is rebounding after a building
spurt that occurred prior to the 2002 Winter Olympics. “A soft market, the war
and the overall economy brought our market to a standing halt in 2002,” says
Chin. “But now consumer confidence is building, and people are taking the
plunge.” They are snapping up an array of vacation home opportunities, from
turnkey condo hotels to sprawling mountain ranches. “Values have dropped and
created buying opportunities that we have not seen in Park City in more than
eight years,” says Chin.
Despite Park City’s plentiful inventory, developers
continue to build, in efforts to shape this community and its three resorts
(Deer Valley, Park City and the Canyons) into a year-round recreational mecca.
Ski-in/ski-out developments such as the Colony, Empire Pass or Deer Crest offer
buyers a chance to build a nest above 8,000 feet, while new golf communities
such as Promontory and Glenwild appeal to flatlanders. For those who prefer
concierge, daily housekeeping and room service, the new Hotel Park City and the five-diamond Stein Eriksen Lodge offer spacious
condos. “Some buyers want a mindless vacation home,” says Clare Jackson of Stein
Eriksen Lodge Real Estate. “Many are former guests who like the services—the spa
and the sleigh rides out the back door.” Homeowners can opt to put their
properties into the reservations system so that they can rent their condos out
for profit. “They like the idea that their property is giving them a return for
their money,” Jackson adds. “Owners’ usage on second homes in Park City is
typically two to three weeks a year. They buy at Stein’s because they don’t want
to see their homes just sit there.”
While Park City solidifies its position
as Utah’s premier second home community, burgeoning resort communities such as
Crested Butte, Colo., are just getting started. Catering to low-key buyers, this
resort is taking its first steps toward decades of planned development. The idea of getting in on the ground
floor at a scenic Rocky Mountain resort has led to a record year for real estate
sales during 2003, particularly at the upper-end of the market, and the resort’s
recent sale to the owners of Okemo Mountain Resort, a successful family
destination in Vermont, solidifies its future.
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Hotel Park City. (Click image to enlarge)New slope-side condos and
single-family homesites are breathing life into a market that has not seen
development in 15 years. Off the mountain, buyers are snapping up lots at the
Club at Crested Butte golf community, as well as taking advantage of building
their own estates on the 35-acre ranch sites available at Red Mountain Ranch.
“These lots offer buyers the feeling of owning a ranch while preserving open
space,” says Doug Kroft of Red Lady Realty. New blood has also been infused into
the town council, which has recognized the need to carefully develop the town. A
voter-approved tax helps subsidize airline flights into the nearby Gunnison
airport, which recently added nonstop service from Dallas and Newark.
Owning
real estate in an established resort town has its advantages, and no buyers know
this better than Aspen homeowners. Despite a recent downturn in its real estate
market that swelled inventory, Aspen has continued to post an average
appreciation of 8.3 percent since 1982. “We’ve been in a buyer’s market since
2000,” says realtor Rich Wagar, “but the market has started to come back with a
vengeance.” With virtually no slope-side single-family housing, Aspen’s most
sought-after homes rest within a five-mile radius of its downtown core in such
developments as Owl Creek, Pitkin Green and Ute Place. “Owl Creek lets buyers
build big homes on 40- to 60-acre lots, while Pitkin Green has mountain views
and is close to town,” says Wagar. “At Ute Place, people are lined up waiting
for homes in the $6 million to $7 million range.”
New product is what buyers
seek, and in 2000 Aspen developers responded with an abundance of new 6,000- to
10,000-square-foot homes with three garages, a bath for every bedroom, and
marble and granite finishes. “These homes were built when the market was soft,
so prices for them have become realistic and have been pulling in buyers,” says
Wagar. For those who prefer a condo in town, this spring downtown Aspen is
seeing its first new, large, multifamily condo construction come on the market
since the 1980s. Obermeyer Place, located five blocks from the Aspen gondola,
will feature 21 two-, three- and four-bedroom residences and sell for about
$1,000 per square foot. “People buy here because they want the best, they want
the exclusivity, and they know their kids will come to visit them,” says
Wagar.
The Allure of Arizona
If second home buyers in Colorado and Utah are lured by the mountains, people in
Arizona are driven by 300 days of sun and endless greens. The promise of an
idyllic lifestyle that includes golf on nearly 200 area courses, tennis, hiking
and shopping has kept resale values in the greater Phoenix area soaring—rising
17.8 percent in 2003 over the previous year. “Our upscale buyers want
single-family homes in gated communities with private or semi-private golf and
tennis memberships. They don’t want to wait to play during the busy winter
season,” says Alice Proski of RE/MAX Excalibur in Scottsdale. “They look for
amenities such as gourmet kitchens and heated pools, and most upscale buyers
have property managers who start their cars, have the house cleaned and pick
them up at the airport, just 20 minutes away.”
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A home at Troon North in Scottsdale, Arizona, is available for $1.1 million
through Alice and Stephen Proski (866.620.2168). (Click image to enlarge)As development continues to
spread north of Phoenix, buyers are looking to such master-planned areas as
Desert Mountain and Estancia in North Scottsdale and to Paradise Valley for its
sprawling estates. Those who prefer a more cosmopolitan appeal are buying into
the Landmark, a new six-story condominium project located amid the 730-acre
Kierland Master Planned Community. “This is a new niche market for us,” says
Proski. “It is a community that is set up for strolling—you can walk to shop and
dine and golf.” ; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Scottsdale offers both social and private lifestyles, but
its main attraction is the high Sonoran Desert climate. “It’s a little more
green than other desert areas,” says Proski. And when you grow tired of the
Scottsdale clime, you can take a day trip to the red rocks of Sedona, the Grand
Canyon or even make some turns on the snowy slopes near Flagstaff. (Click image to enlarge)
Mountain Buying Guide
COLORADO
Crested Butte Mountain Resort:
The Villas four-bedroom
townhomes, $625,000;
Prospect homesites, averaging 1 acre,
$295,000–$750,000.
877.805.6109
www.cbmr.com
The Club at Crested Butte:
Homesites on the back nine from $230,000 to $495,000
and homes on the
front nine from $835,000 to $8.35 million.
970.349.6127
www.theclubatcrestedbutte.com
Red
Mountain Ranch:
35-acre lots from $295,000 to $795,000.
970.349.5007
www.redladyrealty.com
Aspen:
Owl
Creek homes and home sites on 20 to 60 acres from $10 million to $20
million;
Pitkin Green homesites on 1 to 4 acres priced from $7 million;
and Ute Place homes priced from $6 million to $7 million.
970.920.3131
www.wagarrealestate.com
Obermeyer
Place:
Two-, three- and four-bedroom condos from $2 million to $4
million.
888.920.7111
www.obermeyerplace.com
UTAH
The
Colony at White Pine Canyon:
Homesites on 4 acres to 113 acres from $1
million to $3 million.
435.649.3411
www.thecolonywpc.com
Stein Eriksen
Lodge:
Two-, three- and four-bedroom condominiums from $1.6 million to
$2.4 million.
435.645.6457
steineriksenlodgerealestate.com
Deer Crest:
Three- and four-bedroom condominiums from $1 million to $1.4 million
and homesites from $650,000 to $2.5 million.
435.649.7170
www.deercrest.com
Empire Pass:
Homesites
from $2.25 million to $3.5 million.
800.553.4666
www.deervalleyrealestate.com
Hotel
Park City:
Studios to four-bedroom units from $310,000 to
$1.1 million. 435.649.1306
www.hotelparkcity.com
ARIZONA
Desert Mountain:
Homesites from $650,000 to $4 million.
800.255.5519
www.desertmountain.com
Estancia:
Homesites from $425,000 to $1.9 million.
480.563.0543
www.estancia.com
The Landmark:
Condominiums of 950 to 3,800 square feet from $300,000 to $2 million.
480.699.2607, 800.436.8982
www.landmarklifestyle.com