Park City, UT -- (ReleaseWire) -- 03/19/2014 -- The year 2013 saw a fair amount of home buying. Predictably the bulk of the US-wide home (65% of the total number of buyers) consisted of primary residence buyers. These were people who bought a home to live in. 24% bought for investment purposes which implies that they would rent out or hope to resell later at a profit. The remaining 11% consisted of those who wanted to own a vacation home of their own.

If we analyze the demographics of those who bought homes we would see some interesting, but not entirely unexpected facts. The average age of a home buyer was 40, that of an investment buyer 45 and lastly that of the vacation buyer 47. This makes eminent sense in that it delineates the priorities of the average buyer at various stages in life. Interestingly a large proportion of all the three type of buyers are two income earners. The percentage figures respectively for home buyer, investment buyer and vacation buyer are 49, 48 and 48.

In terms of the race and ethnic profile of the buyers 84% of the primary buyers, 75% of the investment and 78% of the investment buyers are white and Caucasoid. The next biggest group of buyers is the Asian/Pacific Islander segment who respectively comprise 7%, 14% and 10% of the primary, investment and vacation categories. The Black/African Americans pick up 6%, 8% and 10% of the homes respectively of the three categories. Hispanic/Latino group who make up 4% of the buyers in each of the three categories. How these groups stack up against each other has a lot to do with the population numbers, the income levels and possibly some social factors like education and status.

For people to move into the investment and vacation home buyer category, they need to have reached a certain stage in life. Typically they would have a stable source of income, their own house to live in and a decent disposable income. Most people would be expected to reach such a station in their forties, though much also depends upon the state of the economy at a given time. Higher incomes can lower the age of the buyer and vice versa. In 2005 the typical age of an investment buyer stood at 49 while that of a vacation home buyer was 52. In 2006 this fell sharply to 39 for the former and 44 for the latter. By 2008 the age of the investment buyer had again risen to 47 and that of the vacation home buyer had stabilized at 47. After peaking at 50 for both the categories in 2012 the ages for investment buyers and vacation buyers respectively reached 45 and 47 in2013. These figures on close analysis do to a major extent mirror the market scenarios prevailing in the market at that point of time.

If we use a different yardstick like income to study the impact on buying patterns of investment buyers and vacation buyers between 2005 and 2013, we would again get very revealing insights into the motivation that drives such purchases. In 2005 people with an income of $75,900 would consider buying a home as an investment and only after they reached an income level of $80,600 would they possibly think of buying a vacation home. By the next year we see the first figure climb steeply to $90,259 and the latter one to $102,200. Investment buyers peaked at about $92,900 in 2007, just a year before the financial crisis dropping to about $82,000 in a year's time. This recovered a bit in the following years before settling back at the same level by 2013. The vacation buyers figure on the other hand started steadily falling after the high of 2006 to about $97,000 in 2008 after which it sharply fell to about $88,000 in 2010. Thereafter it recovered sharply to touch 100,000 in 2011 to again fall to $89,999 in 2012. In 2013 the level reached was $92,100. The far greater volatility seen by vacation buyers is understandable as buying vacation homes would have lower priority for most people than buying a primary home or buying property as an investment.

The fact that the investment buying maintained a fairly stable trajectory from 2008 right up to 2013 is indicative of gradual return to stability by the housing sector after the mauling received during the housing sector crisis. If things continue in this vein, going forward one might see less volatility even in vacation home buying.

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How Do The Western Ski Resort Towns Compare to each other

Park City, UT -- (ReleaseWire) -- 03/14/2014 -- There is this swathe of mountain territory spread across Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, California and Montana blessed with the most spectacular vistas and scenic resort towns. Each towns is special in its own way. While some have the best managed resorts, other places might be better placed in terms of the skiing terrain and infrastructure. Then there are those places that combine gorgeous scenery and great skiing opportunities with a vibrant culture and entertainment scene. The weather, geographical location and accessibility are significant factors as well in determining the popularity of these resort towns.

If you study the Q4 real estate stats of the resort towns that straddle the mountains in the western part of North America, you get a reasonably good idea of how the towns stack up against one another. Take the case of cumulative active listings at the end of Q4, 2013, in comparison with the figure in the preceding year. For Park City, Utah and Steamboat, Colorado, the figure is more or less the same as a year ago (between 1500 and 2000 units). This implies a stability of inventory right through the year. Considering that the number of listings in both the towns was among the highest in the region for the time in question; these towns are definitely a good place to hunt for property. On the other hand one might find Vail in Colorado to be an interesting case where the inventory level in Q4 2012 was above 1500 units, but shot up to more than 2300 units at the end of Q4 2013. Again a place where one could pick up a property with relative ease.

However what really indicates the popularity of a place for potential buyers and investors is the increase in sales numbers. Park City is heads and shoulders above other ski resort towns in the region. From about 1700 units in Q4 2012 to more than 2000 units at the end of Q4 2013, the numbers are really strong. A somewhat similar trend is maintained by Tahoe, where the number of units sold remained high between 1500 and 2000. This was true of the last quarters of both 2012 and 2013. The number of units sold inched closer to the 2000 mark at the end of the latter year depicting decent growth.

The total volume of sales achieved by a town gives a fair indication of the valuation that Real Estate commands in the market. Here again Park City is a creditable performer, with its property being valued higher than most other resort destination of the region. At the end of Q4 2012 Park City property worth a little over $120 million had been sold which rose to more than 140 million at the end of Q4 2013. Following table provides comparisons with Vail and Tahoe, the closest competitors:

Q4 2012 Park City: $120 Million Vail: $140 Million Tahoe: $110 Million

Q4 2013 Park City: $140 Million Vail: $90 Million Tahoe: $110 Million

The average sales prices in the different resort towns again tell an interesting story. In Teton, Idaho the average sale price at the end of Q4 2012 was really high at almost $1,500,000 but fell to a little over $1,200,000 at the end of Q4 2013. Likewise Vail fell from a high of about $900,000 at the end of Q4 2012 to about $800,000 at the end of Q4 2103. Park City on the other hand remained steady at about $700,000 showing a remarkable lack volatility.

While Park City does seem to be the pick of the lot here, all of the resorts in the area have their fair share of advantages and drawbacks. Park City has to continue to not become a victim of its own success (very much a focus of the local government and businesses) that is driven by a world class infrastructure, affordable property and a vibrant cultural entertainment scene that combine well with its beautiful location and easy accessibility. Whistler on the other hand receives the highest amount of snow (so critical for the skiing industry), which explains its perennially high occupancy. However over dependence on just the winter sport aspect does restrict the number of visitors in other seasons thereby impacting Real Estate value.

Vail and Tahoe have a superb reputation for skiing facilities and have seen a fair amount of investment in Real Estate. But, there is however some concerns in both areas to properties being susceptible to fire and water damage – mitigating this danger is an active local town focus. Tahoe is requiring homes to build defensible fire zone and Vail is seeing problems getting home insurance for fire protection.

Sun Valley is a great resort but has accessibility challenges with lack of schedule flights and vacationers having to take commuter flights in from Boise. This has led to an interesting local effort to sustain vacation traffic. The town added a 1% tax on local business to subsidize the airlines to keep scheduled flights into the town by guaranteeing occupancy on those flights.

The Q4 report card for the resort towns in the western mountain generally does show progress in terms of sales of property, though not as evenly as one would have liked. Places like Park City, Vail and Tahoe showed steady gains while others like Sun Valley (Idaho), Teton (Wyoming) and Big Sky (Montana) lagged.

That being said there is no doubt about the fact that the western mountainous region of North America is particularly blessed in terms of the weather, infrastructure and terrain. The western resort towns are some of the best ski resort destinations across the globe.

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