Starting the week before Christmas, locals say that the airports in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Aspen, Colo., become so congested with private jets that they run out of spaces to park them. The jets land, let off their passengers, and then fly to other nearby airports where they wait until their owners are done skiing.
Airport congestion is not the only sign of the popularity of these two areas, long known as enclaves for wealthy tourists. They share another commonality: red-hot real estate. While property values in other resort towns, particularly in Florida and Arizona, are being tugged down by a broad national downturn, brokers say the markets in Aspen and Jackson Hole have racked up double-digit percentage price gains in the past year.
Aspen saw $2.22 billion in vacation home sales in 2007, according to a report by the Land Title Guarantee, a firm that tracks Colorado real estate transactions. The average cost of a vacation home in Aspen stands around $6 million, up about 15 percent in the past year, according to brokers.
Sales in Jackson Hole are said to be up 13 percent over last year, and the average price of a home is $1.2 million, according to the brokerage firm Rare Jackson Hole Properties. In Jackson Hole, easy access to ski lifts can jack up prices considerably. In Teton Village, a cluster of condos located 10 minutes from downtown Jackson Hole but within stumbling distance of ski lifts, prices for condos are up 83 percent over last year.
“Some surrounding resort communities have been softer, but we’re up,” said Rick Armstrong, a professional skier who is also co-owner of Rare Jackson Hole Properties.
Brokers say different factors are driving prices upwards in both markets. Prices in Aspen are sustained by continued strong interest from wealthy buyers, including a small but significant component of foreign buyers. Easy access to the downtown and ski lifts is important but certainly isn’t the only factor.
In Jackson Hole the dynamics are different. There, a declining amount of land available for development combined with zoning regulations that cap building heights at 44 feet, mean that a limited supply of properties are fetching ever higher prices.
“The County Commission is very anti-growth,” said Mark Winston, a consultant with Jackson Hole Real Estate Company. “The last new development took nearly 10 years to get approval. There’s very little new development, and so all the commercial buildings are moving targets.”
Depending on its location within Jackson Hole, prices range between $600 and $1,500 per square foot. One of the most popular forms of ownership is time shares, with prices running between $55,000 for a two-bedroom condo for two weeks in the summer, to $350,000 for the same property for two weeks around Christmas.
Recently Marriott purchased several adjacent two- and three-story buildings, where they hope to build one 70,000-square-foot hotel. However, city regulations presently prevent hotels larger than 35,000 square feet.
The popularity of Aspen remains undiminished, and a number of properties have been asking and receiving stratospheric prices. In December, Prince Bandar, the former Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., sold his home in the Starwood neighborhood outside Aspen for $36.5 million. The property included a 14,239-square-foot house on a 66.6 acre lot. Earlier this year Prince Bandar pulled his other Aspen ranch, called the Hala Ranch, off the market. He was asking $135 million for that 95-acre property.
“Aspen is now probably the only Colorado market with a summer season stronger than its winter season,” says Michael Russo, president of Aspen Sotheby’s International Realty. Russo credits summer festivals like the Aspen Food & Wine Magazine Classic and the Aspen Arts Festival with bringing about the seasonal shift and drawing nearly as many tourists as the ski runs.
“You certainly don’t have to be a skier to enjoy Aspen anymore,” said Russo.