The southeast United States has been pounded by hurricanes and tropical storms especially over the course of recent years. Residential real estate insurance for states like Florida has become very expensive and in some cases no longer available to homeowners. Today’s CSI article outlines the impacts of hurricane-savaged communities and what people do including moving to mountain areas away from tropical coastlines.

Of course, the environmental impact of a "mass-exodus" is always of concern. Big mountain developments change the way the mountains look and how the environment – locally and downstream behaves. Good article.

Thanks for visiting today,

Channing Boucher

Coastal Living Loses Favor to the Mountains

(June 21, 2006) —   As hurricane insurance makes coastal living more costly and as wealthy buyers look to resort communities for vacation-home purchases, pricey mountaintop developments are gaining popularity.

Ridge-top homes in the western North Carolina mountains are going for $225,000 to $1.5 million. There are dozens of such developments along the mountains of North Carolina. Among the largest is Wolf Laurel near Mars Hill, with over 600 of 1,000 planned homes completed so far.

But along with the nice views comes a big controversy: Some experts say that the developments could hurt the environment.

"These mountain communities face a dilemma where they’ve got an eroding economic system and the only choice is to take in things that are going to damage the environment and change the culture," says Boston College sociologist Charlie Derber.

Developers insist that mountaintop communities create jobs and stimulate rural economies, while critics express concerns about the loss of pristine mountain views and polluted waterways caused by runoff.

Source: Christian Science Monitor, Patrik Jonsson (06/20/06)

Good afternoon.

People often ask why land and home prices are so high across Colorado and Utah, especially in the remote mountain resort communities in these areas. These same people think real estate brokers and developers are the reason prices skyrocket in mountain resort towns like Crested Butte. Our industry is often accused of pace-setting the prices of homes and land.  Boy o boy, to think if brokers and developers had that kind of power how things might be!

Today’s article from the National Association of Realtors points to the bottom line when it comes to the value of property in places like Crested Butte, Colorado. Referred to by one consultant as "well defined density", the Rocky Mountain states and it’s mountain communities are simply running out of available living spaces and developable land.

For example, most of the land around Crested Butte is locked up by the Federal government including the Bureau of Land Management, the National Forest Service, designated Wilderness. Additionally, big land trusts, huge ranches and large properties with conservation easements suck up much of the wide open spaces. This density and scarcity has caused the incredible run-up in land and real property values in places like Telluride, Aspen, Vail and Beaver Creek and Park City and now in Crested Butte. Of course, it wasn’t until  the Mueller family showed up in town with their money and marketing that everyone took notice. Once Crested Butte was popular it became brutally evident that there aren’t many homes available for sale or land for development.

Land runs out, people’s desire to live in pristine, natural environments doesn’t ever end. If you are wondering about investing in the Rocky Mountains or a small town like Crested Butte read this article.

Channing Boucher
Visit Crested-Butte-Real-Estate.com

Rocky Mountain Region Running Out of Land

(June 12, 2006) —   A “perfect storm” of demographic shifts, rapid growth, and scarce public funds is creating formidable development challenges for communities in the Rocky Mountain region.

That’s according to Christopher Duerksen, managing director of Clarion Associates, a national land use and real estate consulting firm in Denver. He was the keynote speaker during the Urban Land Institute’s Spring Council Forum last month in Salt Lake City.

Factors, quite different than those in the East, shape development in the Rocky Mountain region, Duerksen says. Among the forces at work: a high degree of federal land ownership leaves little private land for development, the economy has shifted from one driven primarily by mining, ranching, and farming to one driven by tourism and the high-tech industry, a dry and hot climate (the area includes both the coldest and hottest places in the United States), and constant water shortages.

Western states are experiencing some of the fastest-growing price appreciation in the nation, but wages haven’t kept pace with housing costs, he says. “One answer to this is well-designed density,” he said, noting that denser housing fits well with the current trend toward the preservation of open space.

Also, growing pressure from public officials to build more sustainable communities will result in design and development techniques and patterns that are “far different than what we’ve seen in the past,” he said.

Con Howe, former planning director for the City of Los Angles, is the director of the newly created Center for Balanced Development in the West.

“Salt Lake City was a terrific location for the conference because, within a 20-minute drive, you could see all the necessary elements of a smart growth strategy in a fast-growing Western city: urban revitalization (converted lofts and the Gateway, a mixed use development within walking distance of the conference), suburban infill, and new green planned communities, such as Daybreak,” Howe said.

—By Camilla McLaughlin for REALTOR® Magazine Online