Snow Trumps the Economy Any Time

Even if it stopped snowing today. (More snow in the forecast this week here in Crested Butte), the 2007-2008 western U.S. ski season will go down in history as one of the best. What does something like this mean to folks in the real estate business in all of these western ski resorts? Interesting feedback from various ski resort real estate executive’s concerns about a national recession today in Mountain News including the following excerpts.

Karl Kapuscinski, president and CEO of So. California’s Mountain High, which is on its way to one of its top three years in terms of skier visits, put it another way: "Snow trumps the economy any time."

"The number one thing that affects us is the weather above all else, and this winter we’re having a great weather pattern," Tim Mueller, Crested Butte Mountain resort.

"Obviously we’d prefer a strong real estate market right now, but real estate goes in cycles," Mueller said. "The sub prime lending thing has had a big impact nationwide. Real estate markets have softened, bank underwriting standards are tougher, mortgages for our buyers are a little harder to get. It’s true here and most other resort areas."

Mueller is not convinced it’s raining, at least not yet. "I’m a little leery about the idea that there is a recession. I’m not seeing it in consumer spending; unemployment is not high by anybody’s stands, actually it’s pretty low; the price of oil and gas has been high for several years, and hasn’t impacted travel, especially in the East, where travel is dependent on cars not airlines.

"Everyone in the industry has some amount of debt, but now that interest rates are coming down, that will help allay a lot of the fears some have about a recession. I’m glad to see the Fed has responded the way it has. Should it have lowered rates a little quicker? Yes, but I say that because I’m a borrower not a lender. Anytime you can lower interest rate, that’s good. It gives you money to do other things, like pay down debt, invest in operations or whatever," he (Mueller) told the IR.

Read the entire article borrowed from Mountain News – publishers of the OnTheSnow newsletter.

Thanks for visiting!

Channing Boucher
Crested Butte Real Estate Agent
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