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August 18-The North Village destruction/construction site becomes
more impressive every day. The realignment of Canyon Blvd. is well
under way with major storm drain and utility lines being replaced or
moved. The removal of all of the buildings is 99% complete and
numerous trees have been removed. The actual digging has commenced of
the massive hole to facilitate construction of the underground
parking and literal foundation of the plaza and Village lodges. Even
for someone like myself who as so involved in the Village planning in
1991 and 1994 this is an impressive sight.
The local real estate market continues to heat up as we head
into the late summer and fall. Clearly, Mammoth has settled back into
a traditional type of selling season-kind of like the old days. But
how long will this last? My bet is that when the winter visitors see
the massive changes in the Village things will rock. Meanwhile check
out the August 13 issue of FORTUNE Magazine. There is an excellent
article on the vacation home market, how it has sizzled in the past
few years and they say the market has "legs". They finally are
realizing the effect of demographics and scarcity.
The local construction scene got off to a slow start but has
now taken a massive move forward with more high-end homes starting
than anyone can ever remember. They seem to get bigger and more
detailed and more expensive all of the time. The Ski Area is well
into construction of approximately 100 units of housing in the Sierra
Valley subdivision.
The inventory of properties appears to have hit its seasonal
(and typical) high and is moving slowly downward. The inventory
increase was not that substantial over the lows of the winter and
spring. On the condo side, once the Intrawest units (both new and
resale) and the new, under construction Snowcreek Phase V units are
scrubbed out, the inventory stands at 135 units. The least expensive
property is a one bedroom Sierra Manors at $105,500. Average price is
$362,800 and median is #325,000. On the home side, if we take away
the 12 homes that are under construction or "to-be-built" there are
only 47 homes on the market with the average at $790,000 and the
median at $600,000. In some segments of the market it is very
difficult to find any decent properties for sale. At this time the
best opportunities are in the townhome segment in the $300,000 to
$350,000 price range.
The markets outside of Mammoth are very busy with Bishop
leading the way. The demand in that market has never been so high.
Migration from Mammoth and demographics playing the rolls (and let's
not forget scarcity.) June has solid demand but no inventory and in
Crowley Lake single family home construction continues to take off.
That is all for now. It has been a busy summer and we must
prepare for a busy late summer and fall.
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