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If you’re familiar with Park City, you know there are two things this winter town has in spades: skiing, and luxury lifestyle (wining, dining and leisure). While skiing is a great source of recreation, don’t be fooled into thinking that’s the only thing you can do while in town. Take a look at this list to get inspiration for your next don’t-feel-like-hitting-the-slopes day.

Photo courtesy of The Spur

Check Out our Favorite Dining Destinations

In Park City you certainly have your pick of gastronomie. Back in December, though, we heard from some our fantastic Park City agents about their all-time favorite restaurants and pubs in and around the city. Some of their choices included Boneyard & Wine Dive, High West Distillery, The Spur Bar & Grill, No Name Saloon & Grill, and Fletcher’s. You can take a closer look at their very thorough reviews here.

Go Sledding at Woodward Park City

Woodward is one of the newest additions to the area, and you really can’t miss it as you drive into town. We covered the absolute wealth of activities and recreation they offer in a recent blog post, but we really do have to recommend the sledding.

Park City Magazine describes Woodward as the following:

“This brand-new action sports facility is what dreams are made of for kids and kids at heart. There are skate ramps, trampolines, a spring floor, and pump tracks inside; outside, you’ll find progression parks, freestyle zones, tubing, BMX jumps, parkour, and more. Daily access passes and monthly memberships are available.”

Image Courtesy of Alpine Distilling

Make Your Own Gin

This two-hour long experience is one that you’ll never forget. Extend your stay with a complimentary 30-minute tour of its production facilities in Silver Creek, and if you’d like to do a tasting, it’s a dainty $15 extra.

According to the website, the $150 personal distilling package includes the following:

“An Alpine Distilling employee will help you will craft your own Gin from botanicals sourced from around the world and using a gluten-free, 100% Corn base. You will leave with your own custom spirit in one 375ml bottle. Price is for one distilling station. Reservations required.”

Climb Up a Frozen Waterfall

This is exactly what TLC warned us not to do in their 1994 hit single, but in Park City it’s worth a little rule breaking to enjoy this special experience. And the best part? You don’t have to be a pro – or even an intermediate climber. All novices are welcome to learn “front-pointing, flat-footing, effective tool swinging, various ice tool placements, efficient movement, maximization of resting opportunities, how to “read” ice, and ways to minimize risk.”

You can register for this activity online through Utah Mountain Adventures, and this course is “typically held on the lower curtains of the world-class Stairway to Heaven formation in Provo Canyon, easily accessible by a 20-minute hike.”

To see more activities that you can take advantage of, right in Park City, check out this awesome article that we drew some of our inspiration from.

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During the winter months, Park City is bustling with outdoor recreation and wildlife, and is a paragon of healthy living and luxury. So, when it comes to new developments in the area, you already know the standards are set very, very high.

With three new projects well under way, we’d like to take a moment to walk you through some of these exciting locales on the off chance your might not have heard about them. Without further ado, let’s pumped for the newcomers on the scene!

The Mayflower Rendering Courtesy of Extell Development

The Mayflower

If you haven’t heard of The Mayflower (the resort, not the English ship from the 1600s) The Park Record has been covering this development since 2019. Utah Business also had some thorough insights as things continue moving forward, and are some of our favorite juicy details about this development:

“Most notably, a brand-new resort will transform the hills overlooking the Jordanelle reservoir. On the opposite side of the same mountain that hosts Deer Valley, the Mayflower resort will cover nearly 6,000 acres—almost three times the size of Deer Valley—and contain the world’s largest ski beach. (What’s a ski beach, you ask? An oxymoron, etymologically-speaking. But they’ll have the biggest.)

“Mayflower “could have up to 1,560 residential units, 800 hotel rooms, 95,000 square feet of workforce housing, and 250,000 square feet of commercial space,” per Salt Lake Tribune reportage, though the project has its share of controversy. On the plus side, it functions as a recreational military facility, with 100 rooms reserved for military members to use at a discount.”

There is a touch of controversy surrounding this project – mostly due to it’s location in the foothills of Jordanelle – so if you’re interesting in reading up on that, feel free to check out either of the articles we sited above.

St. Regis Fireplace // Courtesy of Deer Valley Resort

The St. Regis (Expansion)

As described by Marriot, The St. Regis at Deer Valley strives to “create an atmosphere of exquisite, immersive experiences — with obsessive attention paid to every detail and desire — that transport you to a world of extravagant discretion. Our mountainside resort hotel in Park City, Utah redefines luxury with subtle sophistication and thoughtful accommodations.”

The fact that it is expanding means that there will be more of this fantastic resort community to love. CPE (Commercial Property Executive) published an article that details the cost of the St. Regis expansion, as well as some of the added features.

“Sonnenblick-Eichner Co. has arranged $60 million in financing for St. Regis Deer Valley, a AAA Five Diamond year-round destination resort in the Deer Valley ski area in Park City, Utah…

“…Deer Valley was purchased last August, before it was a St. Regis, by affiliates of KSL Capital Partners and Henry Crown & Co.

“Those two entities had just weeks prior finished combining Intrawest Resorts Holdings Inc., Mammoth Resorts and Squaw Valley Ski Holdings into one company, which owns 12 four-season mountain resorts with 6 millions skier visits and 20,000 skiable acres, along with “significant land available” for future development.”

We are waiting with baited breath to see the unveiling of what promises to be a sumptuous addition to an already stunning resort.

The Pendry

Much like the Mayflower, The Pendry is a complete new-comer on the Park City scene. With a budget of $165 million, this resort promises “152 guestrooms and suites―condos too. Restaurants, spa, and a fitness center round out the package.” There isn’t much more to know just yet about what the aesthetic will be, and there haven’t yet been any renderings released to the public, so only time will tell which features will become favorites among the guests.

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The following analysis of select counties of the Utah real estate market is provided by Windermere Real Estate Chief Economist Matthew Gardner. We hope that this information may assist you with making better-informed real estate decisions. For further information about the housing market in your area, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

ECONOMIC OVERVIEW

Utah’s non-agricultural employment growth continues to impress. The addition of 49,500 jobs over the past 12 months represents a solid growth rate of 2.8%. We did see some fairly modest slowing in employment gains earlier in the year, but this appears to have been reversed. My current forecast is for the state to continue to grow its job base, though I anticipate modest slowing in the number of new jobs. With around 41,700 new positions added, we will see employment grow 2.6% in 2020. In November, the state unemployment rate was 2.4%, down from 3.2% a year ago.

HOME SALES

• 8,768 homes sold in the final quarter of 2019, representing a solid increase of 7% compared to the same period in 2018, but 17% fewer homes traded hands compared to the third quarter of 2019.
• Total sales activity rose in all but the very small Morgan County. Year-over-year, sales rose by double digits in three counties, with impressive increases in Wasatch, Summit, and Utah counties.
• The number of homes for sale in the final quarter of the year was 14.4% lower than in the same period a year ago and 21.3% lower than the third quarter of 2019. Regular readers may remember that listing activity had been rising, but I am afraid those days are behind us.
• Pending sales in the fourth quarter were up 10.7% compared to a year ago but were 24.3% lower than in the third quarter, suggesting that closings in the first quarter of 2020 may drop from current levels.

HOME PRICES

• The average home price in the region continued to rise in the fourth quarter, with a year-over-year increase of 9.5% to an average of $403,186. Home prices were 0.4% higher than in the third quarter of 2019.
• All counties contained in this report saw price increases compared to the same period a year ago, with impressive gains across the board.
• Appreciation was strongest in Wasatch County, where prices were up 11.7% to $681,300.
• Home prices continue to appreciate at significant rates. I hope to see some slowing in price growth as we move through 2020, but this will only happen if the supply of homes for sale grows significantly.

DAYS ON MARKET

• The average number of days it took to sell a home in the counties covered by this report rose four days compared to a year ago.
• Matching the third quarter, homes sold fastest in Davis, Salt Lake, and Weber counties, and slowest in the expensive Summit County. All counties except Summit saw days-on-market rise compared to the fourth quarter of 2018.
• During the fourth quarter of the year, it took an average of 57 days to sell a home in the region, up from 45 days in third quarter.
• The modest increase in market time is not a concern as there still appears to be significant demand for housing.

CONCLUSIONS

This speedometer reflects the state of the region’s real estate market using housing inventory, price gains, home sales, interest rates, and larger economic factors.

For the final quarter of 2019, I have moved the needle just a little more in favor of sellers. Inventory levels remain low, even in the face of modestly increasing market time. Prices and closed sales are higher, and these things certainly favor sellers.

ABOUT MATTHEW GARDNER

As Chief Economist for Windermere Real Estate, Matthew Gardner is responsible for analyzing and interpreting economic data and its impact on the real estate market on both a local and national level. Matthew has over 30 years of professional experience both in the U.S. and U.K.

In addition to his day-to-day responsibilities, Matthew sits on the Washington State Governors Council of Economic Advisors; chairs the Board of Trustees at the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington; and is an Advisory Board Member at the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies at the University of Washington where he also lectures in real estate economics.

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Choosing less space often has to do with a desire to live a life that’s simpler. Whether you’re retiring, want an eco-friendly, low-maintenance lifestyle or your children have moved away, downsizing might be the best option for you. Here are the advantages and disadvantages to consider before making the move and questions to begin asking yourself now.