Though our Wolf Creek Ski Area has the best snow in Colorado, (or nearly anywhere in the Rockies) we do need some fresh powder. The Ski Area is doing a good job grooming the runs, but without some additional snow in the next 7-10 days, it may start to get a little thin and hard packed. For those of us that live here, this year’s snow has been a bit of a disappointment, except for the great conditions during the months of October and November. Normally our base would be another 12-36 inches deep by this time in January. Wolf Creek Ski Area saw it earliest opening day this year due to some great storms that dumped an abundance of snow and temperatures that stay low up on the mountain. While I was there last weekend I spoke to several skiers that were experiencing Wolf Creek for the first time. They usually skied in Summit County, at Keystone, Breckenridge or Copper Mountain. When they looked at the snow depth up there, they decided our area was the place to ski. I met skiers from Minneapolis, Omaha, Kansas City and Orange County, California. All were impressed with our Ski Area and high praises for the mountain grooming and the good food in the Main Lodge. Hopefully those visitors will tell others and we will see more new skiers later this year and beyond. On Sunday it was College Day and Wolf Creek Ski Area had a mountain full of college students taking advantage of good skiing conditions and cheap lift tickets. Everyone seemed to be enjoying their friends and the sunny day on the slopes. This week things have quieted down a bit with a few visitors still in town on semester break and extended Christmas vacations. The restaurant owners I have spoken to seemed pleased with the volume of business they did during the Christmas holidays. As the normal seasonal business cycles work here in Pagosa Springs, everyone now has to hunker down and wait for the influx of tourists and visitors during Spring Break. The early indications are that we should see numbers improved from last year. Much depends on our weather and the snow conditions at other resort areas in the Rockies. This is historically a slow time for real estate in SW Colorado. We typically get few Buyers during ski season. Some will look during the winter and return in the early summer to get serious about owning property here. We have seen some Buyer traffic, mostly focused on the best buys available within the available inventory. We have not seem many further price reductions this winter as normally Sellers settle to wait out the winter, hoping for better selling conditions in the spring and summer. So far, the number of new foreclosure filings looks to be improving. We will wait until the end of this month to see if the backlog we have been hearing rumors about materializes. If not, it may well be that we are in fact past the worst of the market correction and the likelihood of further price erosion may be very limited. I recently viewed a chart of each of the 50 states which categorized them as to how many homes have negative equity. Colorado looked pretty good, especially when compared to AZ, CA, FL and NV. You can click the link below to the article: http://www.kcmblog.com/2012/01/06/negative-equity-state-by-state/ If you would like to view all of the properties available within our area, be sure to visit our website: www.pagosasource.com If you have questions or comments, drop me a line by email: MikeHeraty@frontier.net or give me a call at 970 264-7000. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Mike
