Ski Homes Feel the Real Estate Chill

Nov. 17, 2009— -- As surely as fall gives way to winter, many people will be on the hunt for deals on the ski slopes. But this season, with many real estate markets still in a tailspin, the biggest discounts aren't just on lift tickets and snowboards.

Ski homes and condos in popular resort areas from Stowe, Vt., to Aspen, Colo., are priced to move as owners and developers try to get through another Christmas season marked by eroding home prices and sluggish sales.

"You could say we're all hoping for a little something extra from Santa this year," said Randy Roswell, an independent realtor in Salt Lake City, Utah, who caters to home buyers in the popular Deer Valley area.

Asking prices on properties in some of the country's priciest ski zip codes have seen 15-30 percent price cuts this year. Sellers have learned that even the most tricked-out ski houses with Jacuzzis, heated decks, and hot tubs aren't immune to the real estate slump, say agents.

"I never thought I would see the day of million-dollar price reductions," said Colorado real estate agent Karen Barrocas of Colorado Ski Real Estate.

Barrocas is a buyer's agent who works in markets like Aspen, Vail, and Telluride. She said more than half of the homes she shows clients have price tags that have been slashed.

"It is definitely a buyer's market and the supply is much larger than the demand," she said.

The luxury sector of the ski home market, which initially held up better at the beginning of the housing downturn, is taking the biggest hit, say property experts.

Banks have turned cautious on high-end lending. Home and condo sales at ski developments -- which soared during the housing boom -- have stalled or flattened in areas like Jackson Hole, Wyo.; Snowmass, Colo.; and Deer Valley, Utah.

Nationally, sales of homes priced over $1 million slipped 1.2 percent in September from the year before, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Julie Olsen, a buyer's broker in Park City, Utah, said some homes in that popular ski town have seen prices reduced "by a million dollars or more."

In Pitkin County, Colo. -- home to towns like Aspen, Vail and Snowmass -- there were a total of 74 home sales in September 2009, compared to 127 in 2007, according to Land Title Guarantee Company.

Price cuts in ski markets are following a national trend.

Trulia.com, a real estate search engine that tracks local price trends, released a national survey last week that showed almost a quarter of homes on the market -- 23.6 percent -- have had at least one price cut, totaling $27.4 billion in reductions.