Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Mountain News: Real estate sales drop sharply

ASPEN, Colo. – The real estate market this year in some ski towns is such that realty agents picked up second jobs. The story isn’t universal.

ASPEN, Colo. – The real estate market this year in some ski towns is such that realty agents picked up second jobs.

The story isn’t universal. Summit County, for example, continues to perk along, with dollar volume not drastically different from last year. But in those markets that sizzled most in recent years, the “quiet” of today is heard most loudly.

Aspen has had among the most severe drop-offs compared to its halcyon years, 2005, 2006 and early 2007. Through May, real estate transfer taxes collected by the city had declined 38 per cent compared to the same period in 2007. The decline elsewhere in Pitkin County was more severe yet.

For those inclined to drama, The Aspen Times finds witnesses.

“It’s the first time in 10 years I’ve seen a number of people in the business really looking elsewhere to supplement their income,” said Craig Morris, a partner in a realty firm called Morris & Frywald.

Another major firm went out of business — although it should be noted that the owner was nearing retirement anyway.

A measured view of the times comes from Don Taylor, Aspen’s city finance director. He notes that this year’s real estate sales still are greater than those of 2004 and before, when the record-smashing business began.

Elsewhere in northwest Colorado, the story is mixed. Eagle County, which includes the Vail and Beaver Creek resorts, had a drop off of 25 per cent in volume through May, as compared to the same months last year.

Steamboat Springs and Routt County encountered an even sharper cliff, 62 per cent, according to figures collected by the Land Title Guarantee Co.

Summit County has had a much smaller dollar volume in past years as compared with Aspen and Vail. But that gap has diminished, as Summit County’s market has declined not quite 15 per cent.

Garfield County, located west of Aspen and Vail, fell about 10 per cent. This is an area that is part of the resort economy, but also for the booming gas and oil fields and preliminary oil-shale work.

 

Turbines considered for Snowmass

ASPEN, Colo. – Several years ago the Aspen Skiing Co. examined its four ski mountains and concluded that winds on top are just too gusty for wind turbines. Wind is best for producing electricity when it’s strong but steady.

But turbines are now strong enough to withstand blasts of 120 mph. If gusts that are even stronger arrive, new designs allow blades to fold.

And so a 165-foot tower with a propeller is soon to be erected atop Snowmass, to better measure the wind potential there. Preliminary computer runs suggest a pot of gold, enough wind to meet two-thirds of electrical demand at Aspen’s four ski areas, plus miscellaneous lodging and other properties.

If the tests prove positive, Aspen Skiing will install three 1.7-megawatt turbines. That’s 5.1 megawatts altogether.

Estimated return on investment is 7.5 to 8 years — after which it’s mostly free energy, with a potential savings to Aspen of $26 million over the next 20 years.

The idea for the wind turbines came partly from the U.S. Forest Service, which is now trying to find places suitable for renewable energy. At first, the thinking was of small turbines.

But an engineer from the National Renewable Energy Lab got the team to thinking bigger and taller. “If there’s no reason not to go big, then go big,” said Otto Von Geet.

Aside from the technical feasibility, the major issue is public acceptance. Jim Stark, A U.S. Forest Service snow ranger who proposed the wind turbines to Aspen, predicts broad acceptance.

“It’s here and it’s now. It’s the right time and the right place,” says Stark.

Even in 2002, people weren’t ready for wind turbines at ski areas. But because of climate change and our dependence on foreign oil, the idea of 300-foot-tall towers and blades on the edge of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness is already being quietly accepted, he reports.

Auden Schendler, the Aspen Skiing Co.’s director of community and environmental responsibility, said his company is interested. “We’re always interested in what’s real, instead of offsets and credits.”

Stark believes ski areas are ideal places for wind turbines. Good roads are needed to high locations, and ski areas have them. Too, power lines are needed, and once again, ski areas have them.

One other U.S. ski area, Massachusetts’ Jiminy Peak, began operation of a $3.9 million wind turbine last fall. The turbine, with its blade, reaches a height of 386 feet. During its first winter of operations, it generated 33 per cent of the electricity needed at Jiminy

 

Taos testing wind

TAOS, N.M. – Wind-power entrepreneurs are investigating the area of the Rio Grande Gorge just north of Taos to see if the wind there will justify erection of possibly 55 turbines. The turbines being considered would rise 285 feet into the sky and could generate 1.5 megawatts of power each, reports the Taos news.

 

Plastic bag use declines

CANMORE, Alberta – Municipal officials in Canmore decided against banning plastic bags at grocery and other stores. Just the same, more customers are bringing their own cloth bags for shopping.

The Rocky Mountain Outlook says plastic use is down significantly in Canmore. But it is down more broadly across western Canada. A spokesman for Safeway said plastic bag use is down 20 per cent in most major areas.

Meanwhile, Telluride and Aspen are engaged in a competition to see which one is more successful in dampening use of plastic bags. Nothing definitive yet has been reported as to which horse may have the lead. Meanwhile, the Vail Daily, in an editorial, suggests that this is a competition Vail should nose in on.

 

Summer paid parking may be next

VAIL, Colo. – With gas running nearly $4.50 a gallon in many mountain towns, you’d think the roads would be quiet and parking garages half-full.

Not so in Vail, where one of the town’s main parking structures is filling up routinely this summer — a first for summer. Mike Rose, the town’s transportation director, tells the Vail Daily that there probably will be paid parking in summer next year.

Part of the story is the gigantic amount of construction now occurring in Vail. Construction workers are filling up 400 spaces a day.

Winter parking has become an increasing problem, too. It’s not because there are more skiers on Vail Mountain. Skier days are about the same as in the early 1990s. But there are more people arriving from down-valley communities, despite regular bus service.

Although there are 2,815 parking spaces, traffic spilled onto the adjoining frontage roads 48 times last year. The town hopes to add 500 parking spaces to limit parking along the frontage road, which is considered dangerous.

 

Canyons sale now complete

PARK CITY, Utah – Sale of The Canyons, a ski resort at Park City, has closed. The new owner is Talisker Corp., a Toronto-based developer that has been active in Park City real estate since 2000, notes The Park Record.

Vail also wanted to gets its hands on the ski area, and last year filed a lawsuit claiming Talisker interfered with its efforts to buy the resort. The sale price was reported to be $123 million. With this sale, the American Skiing Co. has now disposed of all its assets. At one point in the mid-1990s, the company was on a buying binge, and sitting at the same table as Intrawest, Vail Resorts and Booth Creek Ski Holdings.

 

Aspen and DEA disagree on drugs

ASPEN, Colo. – An Aspen man died of a heroin overdose in March, and although it got little attention at the time, an agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is making sure it does now.

Aspen has been long at odds with federal and other jurisdictions about the war on drugs. Aspen’s attitude is best exemplified by Bob Braudis, sheriff of Pitkin County, who said he believes — and most Aspen-area residents believe — that drugs are a health issue, not one of criminality.

A close friend of the late writer Hunter S. Thomspon, Braudis literally turned his head at Thompson’s frequent drug use.

Jeffrey D. Sweetin, who runs the Denver Branch of the DEA, cited the heroin overdose as evidence that “drug distribution and abuse are present in Aspen.” And, he added, as long as they are, the DEA and willing partners “will continue to investigate and prosecute drug traffickers wherever they operate.”

The DEA in December 2005 conducted a raid at a popular Aspen restaurant. The raid, says Rick Carroll of The Aspen Times, “drove a wedge through the community: Some felt it was long overdue and sent a message. Others reasoned it was heavy-handed and unnecessary.”

Braudis does not allow his sheriff’s deputies to do undercover work. By city law, Aspen police are likewise prohibited. Braudis told the Times he would “never hinder or compromise another investigation by other agencies, unless they were violating our constitutional rights.”

 

‘Inspire your Passion,’ urges CB

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. – “Inspire your Passion” is the new tagline for advertising by Crested Butte Mountain Resort. The phrase will be seen in everything from signs to uniforms worn by employees, and even in the architectural design of real estate, says the resort in a press release. The message defines what makes Crested Butte different from other mountain destinations, said Ethan Mueller, director of operations.

 

Grizzly dies in motorcycle collision

RADIUM HOT SPRINGS, B.C. – A large male grizzly bear was killed upon impact with a motorcycle in Kootenay National Park in mid-June. The driver of the motorcycle was reported to have suffered only a broken arm and minor lacerations, reports the Invermere Valley Echo, and was treated at a hospital in Banff.

 

Growing your own

TELLURIDE, Colo. – Eating local has become one of the latest fads. But how do you eat local when you live at 8,750 feet, the elevation of Telluride, where the frost-free season — at least until the climate began changing — is measured in weeks, not months?

Still, says Amy Levik, writing in The Telluride Watch, there’s no reason some of your food can’t be produced locally if you have a little forethought, determination, and awareness. In Telluride, that probably means lots of spinach and peas.

 

Governors, premiers meet

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – There were governors and premiers cheek-and-jowl last weekend in Jackson Hole, which hosted the annual Western Governors Association. Altogether there were 13 governors from the western states, plus premiers from five Canadian provinces.

The governors talked about wildlife, energy and water, among other things.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal notes that the prior appropriation doctrine common in the West, often described as use-it-or-lose it, lacks incentives for conservation and efficiency.

“We have to have a strategy that says to users that if they conserve, somehow we have recognized that conservation may modify the scope and dimension of the underlying property right that is so valuable.”

Brad Udall, who directs the Boulder, Colo.-based Western Water Assessment, described a bleak outlook for water supplies in the region.

“Water has long been a zero-sum game in the West,” Udall said. “Climate change introduces the possibility that it will become a negative-sum game.”

Udall suggested that traditional water storage solutions, including reservoirs, will play a role in the future of water management in the West, but added that new solutions will also be necessary.

Those solutions may include broader implementation of gray water recycling systems, increased efficiency in municipal water use, and a new focus on water when planning power plants and other energy generating facilities, as they often use large amounts of water.

 

Sun Valley to chart carbon footprint

SUN VALLEY, Idaho – Town officials in Sun Valley are getting more serious about their vow to shrink their emissions of greenhouse gases. The town two years ago signed the mayor’s agreement on climate change, in which the town commits to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with a goal 10 per cent less by 2012.

But how do you know if you’ve shrunk your carbon shadow if you haven’t measured it. So that’s what the town will do next, reports the Idaho Mountain Express. The inventory is supposed to be for both municipal operations and the community as a whole.

 

Steamboat advised to get on with it

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Although the real estate market in Steamboat has slowed like a car downshifting to second, the broader guess is that the boom will continue. One manifestation of that boom has been rapidly escalating housing prices, creating a familiar problem: lack of affordable housing.

Don’t wait, act now, was the message from Tom McCabe, executive director of the Aspen/Pitkin County Housing authority. “If the community believes you have a need for affordable housing, get started now,” he told a recent gathering in Steamboat attended by the Steamboat Pilot & Today. “It’s only going to get more expensive.”

Steamboat, unlike Aspen, has available land for affordable housing. Get it, and then worry about the money to build, he said.

Aspen has 2,800 deed-restricted units, but that’s still not enough to meet the needs.

Similar advice was issued by Annie Hayden, who leads the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust. “Things in Jackson have reached a tipping point,” she said. “Don’t get there. That would be my advice.”