The third quarter of 2012 has slipped by and fall is in the air in Park City, Utah. Real estate sales for the area are changing focus a bit from single family residential to vacation second homes and condominiums more focused toward winter sports.

Year versus year sales data for Park City real estate shows a market gaining strength. Single family home sales so far for the year are up 6% versus the first three quarters of 2011 and condominium sales in Park City have seen a 10% increase.

Sales comparisons for the most recent quarter show condominium sales rising quickly in Park City. Sales of condominiums for the third quarter were up by nearly 25% from the same time period last year. This increase represents nearly the total difference in sales when comparing the quarters. A large portion of this was a bulk sale at the Newpark Hotel. When excluding this bulk sale, sales were still up by over 10%. Also of note in Park City condominium sales is the fact that the median price of the condominiums sold is that the median sales price was up over 10%. The median sales price of $315,000 ($340,000 excluding the bulk sale) would indicate that over half of the sales are condominiums that would be classified as vacation rentals.

Single family home sales by contrast have seen a decline in their median sales price ($705,000 in Q-3 of 2012 versus $750,000 for Q-3 of 2011).

The impact of distressed sales fell again this past quarter with only 25 sales that were bank owned properties. This was down from 38 for the same quarter last year; a 35% decrease. Competition in purchasing bank owned homes and condominiums in Park City continues to be fierce; most experience multiple offers, sales prices above asking price and almost all end in a cash purchase sales.

Real estate sales in Park City, UT are location specific and many factors specific to location should be considered when determining which area or subdivision is best for you. Contact a Park City realty professional with YouInParkCity.com at (888)968-4672 for more information.

This data has been derived from sales statistics as posted on the Park City Board of Realtors MLS using only statistics involving single family homes, condominiums, and vacant land in the greater Park City areas (1-23). Data is considered accurate, but not guaranteed.

A look at Park City home and condominium sales in the first quarter plus some interesting resort news.

If we had to pick out what stood out most about the first quarter of 2012 in Park City, the weather might be the first thing to talk about. Winter just never seemed to take hold this season; snowfall totals for the year were less than half of last year.

The lack of snowfall seems to have affected the locals much more than the tourists. Most locals will tell you that they hardly skied or snowboarded at all this past year and yet Park City Mountain Resort reported that ticket sales for the season were down by just 4%. Similarly the lodging occupancy totals for the year so far are off by only 3%. This is a tribute to area snowmakers and groomers who did an amazing job at area resorts.

Park City area real estate sales for the first quarter of the year were relatively flat compared with the first quarter home sales of 2011. Single family home sales in the greater Park City area registered 81 (down from 100 in the 2011 period) with the median price falling to $692K. Condominium sales saw a slight boost with 131 sales and a median price of $402K up from 121 and $381K for the same period last year. Building lots saw a sharp decline but prices were way up as the number of distressed sales have fallen. Distressed inventory (bank REO and Short Sales) made up less than 20% of the sales and are currently under 9% of the active real estate inventory in Park City.

As we move into the summer season (which has come about quickly with the low snowpack from the winter and current 70 degree weather), real estate in Park City is experiencing a decline in available inventory and deals are getting tougher to find.

For in depth information on buying or selling in a particular segment of the Park City real estate market contact a realty professional with the YouInParkCity.com group at (888)968-4672 or email info@YouInParkCity.com.

Real Estate sales in Deer Valley, Utah for the current year.

We here at the YouInParkCity.com group keep a constant eye on what is going on in Park City real estate through a consistent watch of the Park City MLS, regular open house attendance, talking with other agents and monitoring what our clients and local visitors tell us among other things. A recent post indicating that Deer Valley sales were on an uptick caught our eye. Here is a summary of what we found to be true:

Current Park City MLS data shows that there have been 40 sales of homes condominiums and vacant land in Deer Valley since the first of the year. This number is almost identical to the real estate sales for the same period for last year. The average sales price is down a bit at just under $2 million, but the median sales price (half above and half below) is off by nearly $1M. So, thus far in 2012, half of the real estate sales in Deer Valley have been for less than $1M. While we are still seeing movement in the luxury market with sales at the Montage and St Regis Deer Crest hotel residences, real estate sales of above $2M in Deer Valley are currently off by 25% from this time last year. The 16 current pending sales represent a possible upward movement if they make it through to closed sales.

Overall the Deer Valley real estate market is a somewhat mixed bag with pockets of strengths and weaknesses but overall fairly stable in relation to last year. For an in-depth analysis of the portion of the Deer Valley or Park City real estate market that interests you contact a realty professional with YouInParkCity.com at (888)968-4672.

How much off the list price can I expect to pay for Park City Real Estate?

We live in a time when everyone wants a deal and consequently people don’t want to pay the asking price for just about anything. Discounts flood our email in-boxes, coupons fill the mail and newspapers are delivery vehicles for weekly sale circulars. It has gotten to the point that we readily know that full price isn’t what we’ll pay in the end.

There are of course some exceptions; we know the price of an iPad will be the same wherever we buy it and there won’t be any discounts, and we don’t wait to go to Starbucks until the coffee is on sale.

What about houses and condominiums in Park City, UT? Are people paying full price or is everything on sale?

Over the past 90 days there have been 228 sales registered across the Park City MLS. Of these sales, 36 recorded at or above the asking price. Over 15% of the sales were full price or more. Moreover over half of the transactions recorded with a sales price of 95% or more of the asking price. In terms of a retail sale, a 5% off banner wouldn’t turn any heads. What happened to the big discounts? Only 39 of the 228 real estate sales in Park City were discounted by more than 10%.

This isn’t necessarily an indication that people are willing to pay full price, but rather that people are willing to pay for value. If full price is less than a comparable recent home sale and/or if the home or condo is better than other options or part of a limited supply, asking price can be a good value or deal.

Interestingly, not all of the sales that were not discounted moved quickly. Nearly half of the sales that show 5% or less discounting from their original price had been on the market for over 90 days.

Your YouInParkCity.com Group real estate professional can help you determine if a Park City or Deer Valley home or condominium is “on sale” and a value in our current market. Call us at (888)968-4672 or email info@youinparkcity.com to discuss current area home values.

With 45 days left before the end of the year, we probably won’t see significant changes in Park City real estate sales totals.

Current for sale inventory in Park City’s Lower Deer Valley area includes 28 single family homes and 54 condominiums. This number will likely rise slightly as we move closer to the ski season.

To date there have been 7 single family home sales this year and 2 other homes have accepted sales contracts. So the inventory levels indicate a 3-4 year supply of single family homes in the Lower Deer Valley area. The inventory varies greatly with offerings ranging from $775k to just over $3M. Lower Deer Valley has some homes that are beginning to show their age; this fact can be seen in the variations of asking price with the least expensive homes in the low $200’s/square foot and the highest end well into the mid $500’s/sq.ft. Single Family homes sales for Lower Deer Valley are likely to lag 2010 numbers by nearly 30%.

Condominium sales in the Lower Deer Valley area of Park City show a strong increase versus 2010, but there are factors that have skewed this number dramatically. To date 49 condominiums have sold in Lower Deer Valley and another 6 have pending sales contracts. With 53 active for sale condominium listings, the current inventory represents just over a one-year supply. Lower Deer Valley condominium sales totaled 32 for 2010, so this year’s numbers at first blush are very strong. The twist is that 22 of the sales were bank (or corporate) REO properties. The sales of the bank owned condominiums had an average sales price in the low $300’s per square foot. By contrast, the average sales price for non-bank owned properties was over $375 per square foot.

Many of the homes and condominiums in the Lower Deer Valley area were built from the early 1980’s through the mid 1990’s and many of the properties are “showing their age”. The new construction in the past few years in the Empire Canyon area of Deer Valley has impacted sales greatly as buyers tend toward more “turnkey” products. The Lower Deer Valley area offers great access to all Park City has to offer and there are definitely gems to be found in the for sale listings. For information regarding specific realty listings in Lower Deer Valley, contact YouInParkCity.com at (888)968-4672.

Search Lower Deer Valley Real Estate

The Western Mountain Resort Alliance is composed of 13 destination ski resort area Boards of REALTORS®. The alliance was founded on the idea that while the resorts vary geographically, they share many of the same real estate and development issues due to their vacation resort status. The alliance publishes quarterly sales statistics for the various destination ski areas.

While we here in Park City, UT believe that our resort community offers some of the best recreational opportunities and easiest access of any Western North American Ski Resort, a look at what can be purchased in other resort towns can be very informative.

VS.

Having spent 10 years in Vail, CO, I am jaded to believe that it is the resort with most in common to Park City. In terms of total available inventory if we exclude vacant land, the two areas are almost identical although the single family homes versus condominiums is reversed with Park City having nearly double the number of single family homes on the market as Vail. The number of units sold in the two towns shows Park City’s sales being up 18% in unit volume for the first three quarters of 2011 while Vail’s sales were relatively flat. Available inventory is down in both Park City and Vail versus 2010. The average sales price in Park City saw a 10% decline while Vail registered a 25% decline versus the same period last year.

Another interesting comparison stat between Park City and Vail is the median sales prices. Park City area single family home sales saw a median price (half above and half below) of nearly $550K while Vail shows $400K. Conversely, condominium sales median pricing shows Vail at $480K and Park City at $325. Average sales prices for both single family homes and condominiums are considerably higher in Vail than in Park City.

Maybe Park City and Vail don’t have as much in common as I thought in terms of real estate and the associated values. This likely has a lot to do with the differences in terms of Park City having been an old mining town that developed ski resorts versus Vail having been a ski resort that developed into a town.

For in-depth neighborhood by neighborhood real estate information about Park City, UT, contact a realty professional with the YouInParkCity.com Group at (888)968-4672.

             The ski and snowboard season opening is upon us in Park City, Utah.  Park City real estate sales statistics for the year have shown that property in Park City is selling. Here we will take a more in-depth look at which homes and condominiums in Park City are selling with a focus on ski and snowboard slope-side locations at Park City Mountain Resort.

            Park City Mountain Resort offers the fewest opportunities for true ski-in/ski-out real estate in Park City, UT (in comparison to Deer Valley and Canyons Resort areas). Due to this fact, we will broaden the scope of the analysis to include walk-to skiing and riding homes and condominiums. There are three lift access points to consider in determining a walk-to-ski/ride home or condominium at Park City Mountain Resort: The Park City Mountain Resort Base Area, The Town Lift / Historic Old Town Area and the Silver Star Lift area.

            Of the just under 100 homes and condominiums that have been sold in the Historic Old Town area of Park City this year, over 40 of them can be counted in the walk-to-ski category. There have been over 950 home and condominium sales in the greater Park City area this year.  Many Park City real estate sales are to buyers looking for vacation and second home properties, but not all of the properties are ski-in/ski-out or walk-to-ski.

            One quarter of the sales of the Park City Mountain Resort walk-to-ski/ride properties have been in the Silver Star at Park City subdivision. There are still a few developer owned condominiums at Silver Star, but the sales within Silver Star have been both re-sales and developer owned models. This indicates that the market has found the correct sales price and buyers are responding. The sales prices at Silver Star this year represent an average of nearly 30% off the historic high asking prices.

            For more information on Park City Mountain Resort (which opened for the season on Nov. 20) ski-in/ski-out or walk-to-ski homes and condominiums contact a realty professional with YouInParkCity.com.

            The end of the first quarter of 2010 gives us some concrete evidence of what is happening in the Park City real estate market.

            Sales volume when compared with first quarter of 2009 is up well over 200%. Granted that is not saying a whole lot, but the numbers are equivalent to those of 2008.

            For the quarter there were 70 single family homes that sold in the greater Park City area from January 1 to March 31, 2010. The average sales price was slightly over $1.1M. The median price was $820K.  Park City single family home closed sales prices versus list price varied by a little over 10%.

            Condominium sales in Park City for the first quarter of 2010 were very strong. This is largely due to sales of at The St. Regis Deer Crest and the auction sale at Silver Strike in Empire Pass. There were 123 condominium sales in the first quarter with an average sales price of $1.17M. If the sales at the St Regis and Silver Strike are ignored, the average sales price drops to just over $600K.

            Vacant land sales in Park City, UT for the first quarter may be a good indication of future building in the area. There were 30 land sales in Park City for the quarter with an average sales price of $370K. The Promontory Golf Resort area made up over one-third of these sales as buyers found value in the distressed inventory there.

            Distressed sales and bank REO property levels have increased dramatically in the Park City area. Distressed listings now make up nearly 10% of the property for sale in Park City.

            Home prices in Park City are showing large variations. Some areas have held values very well while others are seeing prices similar to those of 2005 and earlier. For more information on specific properties and neighborhoods in Park City contact a professional with YouInParkCity.com.

          The end of September marks a shift in focus for Park City and Deer Valley real estate Buyers. Traditionally we see a shift away from single family residential homes and toward resort and ski property as the winter nears. This marks a good time to take a look back and compare the latest quarter real estate sales with past years.

            Park City real estate sales for the 3^rd quarter 2009 show only a small drop in sales and unit volume versus the same period last year. Unit sales were effectively flat while dollar volume dropped by about 9%. -Note that for statistic purposes The YouInParkCity.com Group uses only sales in the 84060 and 84098 zip codes and only considers sales of single family homes, condominiums and vacant land-  The 3^rd quarter of 2008 is when sales in the Park City area started seeing the impacts of the economic downturn and people began to realize that we were not totally insulated from the national housing crisis.

            The downturn in dollar volume indicates that prices have receded slightly. Price corrections have varied greatly by neighborhood and the relatively small unit volume means that a few sales can have a large impact statistically. As a case in point, Dakota Mountain Lodge at The Canyons Resort sales represent over 10% of the dollar volume for this past quarter.

            Pricing in general is also showing downward pressure as the sold prices versus the list price was off by 8% while the list prices had shown an 8% discount already.

            Year to date sales versus the same period in 2008 show a decrease in dollar and unit volume of over 35%. The fact that the current period is flat may indicate that the downward market pressures have subsided and we are experiencing a bottom. There is a “feel” among most REALTORS® in town that business is getting better. Most agents are busy with many clients searching for values and beginning to write offers.

            To discuss more in depth statistics and analysis of the Park City and Deer Valley real estate markets, contact a YouInParkCity.com realty professional.

            Pricing trends in the Park City and Deer Valley real estate market are very interesting right now. As the national economy tries to find its bottom, Park City, Utah real estate is doing the same while making an effort to prop up its values.

            There has been an uptick in the sales activity recently and there is a feel within the real estate community that Buyers are coming back to the marketplace. Recent sales activity confirms the feeling. While the second quarter of 2009 shows 121 sales of land, homes and condominiums in the greater Park City area, there have been 75 closings in the last 30 days. There are some very interesting stories within the numbers here. A third of the sales were for over $1 million which goes against recent trends leaning toward “starter homes” and condominiums. Approximately 30% of the recent real estate sales in Park City and Deer Valley, Utah fall into a category of having drastically reduced prices (at least 20% from original asking price), being a distressed sale (short sales or bank owned properties), or a large variance to current asking prices for a local community.

            There is a definite trend toward value no matter what price level, and in the upper most price level there is a tendency to hide sales prices in an effort to keep neighborhood values up. The top 14 sales in this recent report show 5 sales at 20% or more off their original asking price and 6 sales reporting an undisclosed sales price. Utah is a non-disclosure state which means that the sales prices are not part of the necessary data for recording a sale and the sales price is not public record (this is one of the reasons that Zillow has such poor information for Utah). The MLS systems do report sales prices, but again, it is not public record. In an effort to keep data attached to a sale, an undisclosed sales price is recorded in the MLS as 95% of the list price at the time of the sale. The inordinate number of undisclosed sales prices at the top end of the market may artificially inflate the value of these areas, but it can be argued that it is better than no record at all. The number of undisclosed sales prices at the top combined with those sales showing a 20% price reduction (11 of 14 combined) shows that the top levels of the Park City and Deer Valley real estate markets are not immune to the market downturn and that the sellers in the luxury marketplace are also willing to make a deal.

            The increased number of real estate transactions in Deer Valley and Park City show that there are strong values in the market and that there are “value shoppers” finding deals here.  Not all of these values have a listed price that reflects a value, but with some negotiation, bargains can be found.  Contact a YouInParkCity.com real estate professional to claim yours.