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October 19- All of Mammoth continues to look like one big
construction zone and the beautiful October weather has been a
blessing for all those involved including those who just have to get
around town. The finishing touches on the Old Mammoth Road renovation
will have to wait until next year but what has been completed looks
great. Construction on various adjacent parcels is ongoing including
a brand new Shell Mart at the entry to town, an expanded and
remodeled Footloose, a new parking lot in the Gateway Center, a brand
new public parking lot and transit hub across from the Charthouse,
many changes at Igor's (the old Rafters), the beginning of Roberto's
new upstairs cantina, a totally new building at the corner of Old
Mammoth and Meridian which will house two new undisclosed food
service operations and some MMSA housing, and lots more.
The hospital expansion is going great guns with the new
medical clinic open and operating. The new middle school and the new
college building are both open and operating. Several smaller
commercial buildings have been started around town. Single family
residential construction continues to flourish including a few new
"cliff hanger" homes in the Bluffs. Intrawest and the Mountain
continue to build in the Village (the second phase of Grand Sierra
Lodge), at Eagle Base, the Juniper Crest townhomes, and a large
employee housing structure on Main St. Meanwhile, most of the water
line replacements and major road work scheduled for this summer have
been completed.
The real estate market continues to be very strong. The year
2003 will go down as a year for strong appreciation, especially in
the condominium segment of the market. In fact, with the usual
seasonal dwindling of inventory and the anticipation of the public's
excitement over the Village, keen observers can only believe that
another jump in values is imminent. Even this broker says, How can
this be? But inventory is low with less than 50 resale condos on the
market and slim pickings under $300,000. The single family home
market has less than 40 homes with the median and average prices well
over $1 million. Good buildable lots under $500,000 are really few
and far between. Recent sales of multi-family lots are showing values
well above $20 per foot and a recent sale of a commercial corner on
Old Mammoth Road came in at $33 a foot. To put that into perspective,
just a few years ago Intrawest paid $14-15 per foot for the land
where they are currently building the Village.
Appreciation has been so strong and incremental that many
real estate professionals have lost transactions to the standard
appraisal contingency (for financing) and are no longer willing to
let their sellers accept such a contingency in an offer. The
result-serious buyers will have to come up with more cash to close
their escrows. But there seems to be plenty of serious buyers who are
coming in with large down payments (more than 20% down) or who are
simply paying cash. Another recent development that may start to
effect prices-general contractors are experiencing larger and larger
insurance premiums due to the higher number of construction defect
lawsuits across the country. Especially hard hit seem to be the
contractors looking to build small condominium projects and those
that build more than dozen homes a year.
Speaking of the Village, people are getting very excited.
More and more shops are opening and the latest restaurant/nightclub
called Dublins/Fever is getting rave reviews from everybody-great
food at reasonable prices, a beautiful facility and very fun! With
more openings, the gondola running, and people lodged in the rooms
above, Mammoth will truly have a "fun zone" like it has never had
before. Many observers believe this will drive even more demand to
real estate because they will see that Mammoth really is heading
towards world class status.
There is nothing really definitive for those seeking airport
news except that the new environmental documents for the expansion
are in process and regional air carriers continue to be interested in
serving Mammoth soon. Stay tuned. There still seems to be many people
holding a skeptical position on the airport. And all I can say is
there use to be a lot of people who seriously doubted whether there
would ever be a ski lift running in to town. And it is a beautiful
ski lift! For now, Mammoth is experiencing fabulous fall weather with
vibrant aspens and on the verge of an exciting winter
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