Purchasing Power
When to buy—or not buy—your vacation home.
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Last January, when real estate agent Matt Hanson walked up to the front door of one of the homes he had listed, he had to turn around. “There was four feet of snow on the front steps,” Hanson says. In the mountain playground of Lake Tahoe, where he works, the window of opportunity for buying and selling a vacation home opens only as the weather allows. One snowfall last winter left six feet of snow in 48 hours. Two days later came another two feet of fluffy powder. “Come early December, our market slows considerably,” Hanson says. “Once a house gets snowed in, it’s just too difficult to show it.”; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Lake Tahoe
attracts millions of skiers in winter, but skiing is not the only reason people
choose to purchase a vacation home there. “In Tahoe, there are two sets of
buyers: those who want to be on the lake and those who simply want to be in the
mountains,” Hanson explains. The most desirable area, the Lake Tahoe Basin, has
long attracted northern Californians. Those who are serious about purchasing a
second home usually come prepared. “They need to have a minimum of $3 million if
they want to be on the lake, and they need to know how to time their purchase to
get the best selection and best price,” he adds. The market here is not unlike
its local black bear population—it hibernates all winter and wakes up in the
spring hungry and ready to grow. “If winter remains strong and it keeps snowing
through March, it takes that long for the market to recover,” says Hanson. “But
the last three winters have been mild, and that has brought buyers in as early
as late February.”While warmer days promote optimism, Hanson cautions buyers not to be too eager. “Sometimes the inventory lags behind and then the homes that do come on the market early start selling at appreciated prices,” he says. “It’s better for buyers to wait until May, when the inventory catches up to the demand and the prices start leveling off.” Wait too long, however, and you will be buying leftovers. “These are the homes that nobody wanted—they are in a bad location, were overpriced to begin with or they just have something wrong with them,” Hanson says.
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While Lake Tahoe’s real estate season has
definite boundaries and rhythm, other mountain locales move to a different beat.
Carol Dopkin, a 26-year veteran realtor in Aspen, Colo., once enjoyed the down
time that accompanied the market there, but now she is faced with a market that
has no bounds. “We used to have a slow season, but we don’t anymore,” she says.
“Second home owners are staying longer. They come for skiing and for the
summer music festivals. They come during the off-season, which can be a
particularly good time to buy.” (Click image to enlarge) She attributes the steady activity to the fact that Aspen, once a ski town, has become a year-round vacation destination. Some buyers, such as the recent influx of Floridians, come just for the summers. “They want to get away from the heat,” says Dopkin. Even developers are responding to the new summer crowd. “We never had air-conditioning in Aspen, but now all the new construction is air-conditioned because so many buyers from the South demand it,” she says.
Aspen has become famous for its idyllic recreational and cultural lifestyle, but it has proven to be a wise investment. “A lot of people want to get into this market because it is solid,” says Dopkin. “They want to put their money in a safe place and establish a retreat for their families. They choose Aspen because it has a history of being a good financial investment.”
Carol Dopkin Real Estate, 800.920.1186, 970.920.1186, www.caroldopkin.com
Fiddler’s Creek, 800.583.7536, 239.732.9300, www.fiddlerscreek.com
Matt Hanson, Truckee River Homes, 866.582.6111, www.tahoetruckeehomes.com
The Walt Danley Group, 800.845.2070, 480.991.2050, www.waltdanley.com
