Fall 2019 Real Estate Update
After another stunningly colorful autumn, my team and I are spending the remainder of the fall season making final preparations for Eagle Point Resort’s 10 year anniversary. Can you believe it has been so long? In those ten years, it has been exciting to see the community grow into a place that now includes an award-winning resort in operation, with new snowmaking and high speed internet infrastructure in place, 17 new homes built or in some stage of construction and many more exciting projects in the pipeline for 2020 and beyond. (There were only 27 cabins built in the 40 years before my arrival at Eagle Point.)
Perhaps even more promising for the future is that we sold 58 homesites from developer inventory in the past few years which means 58 new families are emerging as Eagle Point second homers. The addition of these new families will help shape the next 10 years, which promise even more interesting changes to our evolving community.
As I witnessed the bustling construction activity on the mountain this summer and fall, I often thought back to how challenging it once was to own property in the area (even if some owners preferred the solitude of having no one around). In the past, buying real estate involved driving around the area mostly finding for sale by owner signs with faded phone numbers (nothing was listed online). Maybe someone would call you back, if you persisted. Developing property required hours of calls and research with county, service district and state authorities to figure out permitting, followed by the trial of finding contractors to drive up from far away, sometimes at extraordinary cost. Selling property took a long time (often years) with most prospective buyers hesitant to buy resort property without an operating resort. This was how I found the situation when I arrived 10 years ago.
Those existing experiences were unacceptable in my vision of creating a leading destination resort and second home community. So I set out to turn those challenges into opportunities. Now today, through two of my favorite businesses, Aspen Equity Real Estate, a licensed real estate sales agency, and Aspen Equity Construction, a licensed building and construction company, I am committed to making ownership more convenient and enjoyable and real estate more valuable in the Eagle Point area. I’m pleased to report that the real estate market here is the healthiest it has ever been.
Here are some highlights of activity that may surprise you:
All-time records were recently set for the area. I helped a friend sell a mountain home last year for $850,000, and my development company sold an absolutely beautiful lot in Aspen Crest for $195,000.
Like Grandpa used to say, “if you snooze, you lose”: I can’t tell you how many prospective buyers were shocked and disappointed to find the lots or condos they were considering buying for months to have sold to someone else before they expected.
We have only 6 remaining lots available in Aspen Crest and only 19 in West Village. With prices still reasonable (and much cheaper than anything comparable at other ski areas), come see us soon to choose your favorite remaining homesite before they are all sold. Remember, we will not be releasing additional new homesites anytime soon as our focus has shifted to developing condos for overnight lodging for the resort for long-term buy-and-hold investors -- last winter virtually every weekend was a lodging sell out so we need more rental units to keep up with demand.
The twin home product line offers 2,000+ square feet attached homes (2 units per twin home) each with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a 2 car garage. The first twin home is sold and is days away from completion while the second twin home is well underway and available for purchase from $500,000 per unit. Find a family member or friend and buy both units. Nowhere else in Utah can you get a new ski-in/ski-out home with 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 4 car garage for $1 million.
There are only 4 available condos for sale, including, in my humble opinion, the nicest existing condo on the mountain which is the one our family will be moving out of in a few weeks when our new twin home in Aspen Crest is finished. In addition to many great memories, the 1,593 square foot condo has 3 bedrooms plus 2 lofts, 2 bathrooms and a garage and has an awesome slopeside location just below the Skyline lift and above the skiers’ tunnel. For $279,000, you can’t beat that price for the largest condo in the resort area. Until it sells, it will be a premium overnight rental as part of the Eagle Point Property Management Program so you may be able to rent it for a ski trip this winter.
Our 10th year of winter operations begins December 20, 2019, open daily through January 5, followed by our usual Friday-Monday schedule. Our family looks forward to seeing yours on the mountain.
Best wishes,
Shane
