The last few weeks of ski season, or the first couple weeks of April have seen record snow fall at Vail and Beaver creek.  The great snow conditions coupled with Easter and Holy week falling so late in the year has somewhat helped Vail to recover some lost revenue. Real estate which follows the visitor trend was way off. See stats on www.VailValleyLiving.com. The last two weeks of March saw lower lift-ticket revenue than usual and less than stellar snow fall.

Both retail shops and rental agencies reported similar experiences seeing some slight decline over the normal numbers for end of March. Guest bookings for the entire 2008-2009 ski season were down around 12.8 percent compared to last year.  And while Vail resorts also saw a 6.2% decline in skier visits compared with last year, despite the incredible sales of the popular Epic pass, the shortfall still seems relatively minor compared to what is happening in the rest of the country. Next years Epic pass sales have already started, a small amount of money down is required.

Our Real Estate seems soft in terms of the number of sales and sellers are dropping prices as the season ends. The next 6 weeks are the premium feasting time for Buyers as Sellers who did not sell will want out and after the 1^st of May they will be looking for the summer crowd to help them.

This summer, the airport in Eagle Colorado: the Vail Valley’s direct flight airport, will be getting some improvements that will make it possible to get nonstop services to more destinations. Right now you can fly directly from Atlanta, JFK, La Guardia, Dallas, LAX, Chicago, Miami, Cincinnati, Minneapolis and Denver, but some only in the winter.

While the discussion of which destinations have yet to be determined, the new runway upgrade is scheduled to start this summer. During that time the airport will be closed for about four months. The runway will be lengthened by 1,000 feet to allow for certain aircrafts to carry more fuel and still be able to take off. Because of the altitude in the Vail Valley, in summer the runway is not long enough for the big planes to take off. Analysis is still being done on the cost effectiveness to fly longer distances and to which locations.

Direct flights to the Vail Valley from the top cities in the U.S. will make Vail more attractive to those people who are looking for ease of travel. Let’s face it, air travel is not quite like a visit to the dentist, but it is getting close to it. The more painless it is to get here, the higher up on people’s vacation list Vail will rise.

Meetings are being held to decide the next steps for the Eagle County Airport. Does the current situation provide ample needs for the Vail Valley or is expansion and growth going to become a necessity? Are international destinations to Vail something that is a worthwhile venture to look into? Going international not only poses the question of fuel and capacity but also of the need for a customs booth which is a big obstacle to overcome. But boy would that be a big plus to our Real Estate sales. As of right now we get foreign visitors but not so many foreign buyers of our Vail Real Estate.

There is also the forever on going talks of adding a special exit off of I-70 to make the airport more accessible. Currently, the drive time to the town of Vail from the Airport is about 30 minutes. Direct access to the highway may not take a huge amount of time off that trip, but certainly will make it easier.

You can come visit us by flying through Denver this summer and then taking a really scenic drive up here. It is worth the drive and you will see what the locals say about what brought them here to begin with and why they are still here. “You come for the snow but stay because of the Summers”.

We are closing out our ski season on April 15th and for the real estate market this has been one of the slowest seasons in a long time. We have seen the buyers start to poke around in the last 2 weeks and once they get comfortable with what they feel is the bottom we will see the activity pick up again.

When will we see the bottom…. well I only wish I knew. At the end of the month we will be doing our 1st quarter report and comparing this to the past years 1st quarter.

If you’d like a copy let us know and we will get one out to you.

The inventory level is the highest we have seen since probably  2000 and the new projects like the Four Seasons due in October, the Solaris the next on line and the Ritz Carlton in Vail are all going to have tough openings if lenders don’t start doing condo hotels. We go into our quiet period after the 15th of April and it is not just the visitors who are leaving town. The brokers will start heading off for their various favorite vacations spots so business really slows down with nobody in town.

That is actually the best time to buy. The Sellers are distraught that they did not have winter sales and know that it will be July 5th before the visitors start coming back and August before we have the big rush. Now is the time to be putting in those absurdly low offers that everyone wants to make and see what can really be had.

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