More Good RE News...

[motion]

Our local ski mountain has been purchased by a developer out of San Francisco. http://www.thebigskysun.com/article.cfm?articleID=5340

Of course, everyone knows what this means: Red Lodge, a sleepy little town of 3,000 is now on its path to be the next Telluride, Aspen, Jackson Hole, etc. Its inevitable. The new owners are already talking about the need for more beds in town, and turning the area into a weekend, year-round destination, rather than just a place to ski for a day and have a beer downtown.

Our neighbor, the developer of our subdivision, is pulling all his .6 acre lots off of the market and relisting them next spring for more than twice the previous listing price. From $89,900 to $184,900. This means that my 3 acres with a new home has increased in price somewhere around $150,000 literally overnight. $1,000,000 plus can't be too far down the road.

With all the doom and gloom out there, just thought I'd share. I need it.... my place in Orange County has lost around $300K. The houses in Albuquerque are holding steady at about 20% more than I paid 2 years ago. They should be OK, since Albuquerque is a stable RE market with no real effects from the subprime meltdown. I know Rob in Canada has plenty of good news from his area. Anyone else?

[Rick Lee]

Motion, what happened with your deadbeat tenants?

[motion]

Rick, this is a thread about good news.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

What's the target market and how do they expect people to get there?

If it's the real deal, transportation will be a key issue. Reference Mammoth Lakes for more on this. The mountain does reasonably well, but it's NOTHING compared to how it would do if commercial jet service was made available. United test-flew a 737 into MMH a few years ago but nixed the plan to initiate service.

I literally used to ski every weekend when I lived back in New England, but stopped a few years ago when lift tickets started topping $60 a day. It's simply ridiculous now.

[Noah930]

Congrats, motion. Hope it becomes popular enough that you make a killing, but not so much that you don't want to live there, anymore.

[craigster59]

When Intrawest bought Mammoth and June Mtn, it initiated a lot of changes in the town both good and bad. I personally liked it better when run by Dave McCoy, but maybe SloDave can give a more experienced perspective.

[911Rob]

You got the 'golden finger'!!!

I'm always telling everyone that I've got the golden finger; everything I touch turns to gold. I can tell by your POSITIVE ATTITUDE that you've got it too my friend.

Life hands you lemons, make lemon-aid.

I'm working on my biggest deal ever; tricky $hit though.

Good Luck, maybe you can just buy in your own town now instead of going back to Phoenix?

(pulled the trigger on the H1 yesterday too; hee hee)

[motion]

Rob, congrats on the new H1! And good luck on the deal.

Jeff, we have an international (OK, its just Canada) airport 60 miles away in Billings, the state's largest city. That's a reasonable drive for skiers. Big Sky is an hour from the nearest airport, Bozeman, and it works fine for them. Minimum buy-in in Big Sky is probably close to $2mm. I hope they keep the jets out of Red Lodge. Our airstrip is too small for jets. There is talk of moving the airport to another location with more room.... we'll see.

I'm a country boy, but I do like my 5 star amenities. I'm all for development, as long as its done right. Keep the chains and big box out of town and focus on architecture and amenities and I think Red Lodge will be just fine. Aspen has done a great job in that regard.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

60 miles will probably work - sounds like a solid plan.

If you need a good architectural firm, let me know. Yes, our office is licensed in MT.

Hope it works out.

[daepp]

Motion - I cannot believe the timing of this thread. I was thinking just last night about all the doomsayers in the world today, and was wondering how long a More Good R/E News thread would last.

Could the crisis be at all overblown? Or is that just wishful thinking?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

There's certainly a lot of bad news out there and it's legit, but if there's a solid venture with a sustainable business plan built on legitimate product and/or service and not just "fluff" or speculations about endless appreciation backed by nothing, it's got an honest shot.

Obviously a privately-funded venture not backed by garbage mortgage products will be much more resilient to the effects of the RE collapse. This sounds like it's got a legitimate shot at doing okay.

My only criticism would be that it's very difficult for entertainment and recreational ventures to do well in a recession. As belts tighten, those are among the first things for most households to cut. But it might do well enough too. A lot of variables.

I have a very good friend of mine who lives in Jackson - he was actually out here on business two weeks ago so we hooked up for a beer and conversation. If I find myself up there to pay a visit (might very well be in the future) maybe I'll check this thing out for myself. Could be fun.

[RoninLB]

there's a pile of liquidity among the big boys looking for a place to invest. Many of today's survivors tend to be experienced w/high capital.

Aspen lost its ambiance a few short years after they installed the first stop light imo. When the streets are packed with young families and baby strollers it's time to move on. Even the Maroon Bells parking area has been designed for tourists.


all imo

[126coupe]

My buddies place at the Yellowstone club in MT. was purchased for 5.0M he turned down 8.0M.

[p911dad]

My little corner of the world(roughly Corning, Hornell and Watkins Glen NY) continues to thrive, albeit slow and steady. Alstom Inc.(a huge French transit company) has a major facility building mass transit cars in Hornell and has several billion $ of orders from Chicago, NYC, Atlanta and DC. Corning Inc. just broke ground on a $300m new research facility(means more scientists into the area) in Corning and Watkins Glen has a brand-new, fancy lakefront hotel to brag about. Corning has also opened a major facility(the worlds only) making cat converters for large and small diesels to meet the new EPA requirements(another Corning patent). All this means good things for real estate in our area, probably never better in my lifetime. Also, we now have near 100 wineries open on our finger lakes Keuka, Seneca and Cayuga, all drawing hoards of tourists from Canada and NYC(the rich folk). Oh, yeah, Watkins Glen International is currently building a new, state of the art Press Center and will rebuild the Glen Club next. Also, the track schedule is full. The State of NY is just now completing 2 interstate highways through the region(I86 and I99). This probably doesn't sound like much to the urban sophisticates on the board, but we only have 100,000 people in this whole region.

[jorian]

I have a summer place about 400 miles northeast from you on Lake Pend O'Reille. We bought in 1999 and a developer rolled into town 3 years ago. Our property value is has increased almost 10 fold and it seems like we get an unsolicited offer to buy/list every month. Prior to 1999 northern Idaho was a sleepy place without any significant RE appreciation. Guess thats over for now.

I work in North Vancouver as a mortgage broker and have never been busier. Buy and prosper.

[ledhedsymbols]

Hey... I used to ski there when I was a kid growing up in Montana. It wasn't much of a ski resort in retrospect, but I learned to ski there and kissed a girl from my middle school class on the lift up the mountain.
I haven't been there in 13 years or so, but it's probably better in my memory anyway.

Micah

[motion]

Originally Posted by RoninLB

there's a pile of liquidity among the big boys looking for a place to invest. Many of today's survivors tend to be experienced w/high capital.

Aspen lost its ambiance a few short years after they installed the first stop light imo. When the streets are packed with young families and baby strollers it's time to move on. Even the Maroon Bells parking area has been designed for tourists.

all imo

Adding a stoplight does seem to be the end of good, small towns. I hope it doesn't happen here.

Maroon Bells is amazing.... are they still allowing vehicular traffic or is it just busses now?

Here's another positive: Upward pressure on rents. I have raised rents in Alb from $50 to $100 per month per property across the board. And so is everyone else. Plan on doing it again in about a year. Its a good time to be a landlord in some markets!

[motion]

Originally Posted by ledhedsymbols

Hey... I used to ski there when I was a kid growing up in Montana. It wasn't much of a ski resort in retrospect, but I learned to ski there and kissed a girl from my middle school class on the lift up the mountain.
I haven't been there in 13 years or so, but it's probably better in my memory anyway.

Micah

Micah, things have changed in 13 years. To put it in perspective, I have a friend here in town who moved here 13 years ago from Cali. 10 years ago he bought a house in town for $10,000

[RoninLB]

Originally Posted by motion

Maroon Bells is amazing.... are they still allowing vehicular traffic or is it just busses now?

big paved parking lot in same spot as old. Bus and car parking. Rangers replaced by rent a ranger business.

suggest May just as snow is clearing from mountain sides before tourists arrive. Wildlife still comes into valley searching for fresh buds. Raccoons bolder than ever at night. 1960-70's era guys still visit but don't stay long. Forests degraded to the point a photographer wanted to see my old pics for comparison.

[911Rob]

Originally Posted by motion

Micah, things have changed in 13 years. To put it in perspective, I have a friend here in town who moved here 13 years ago from Cali. 10 years ago he bought a house in town for $10,000

I'll give him double of what he paid, plus cost on any improvements.
Let me know?