Summer living in a ski town

[COcheesehead]

The only thing that I would warn about is AC... we stayed one night on our long vacation at Winter Park... and it was 'hot'... in the mid to high 80s... and the very nice resort had no AC... it was not comfortable in the condo even with the fan... eventually it cooled down at night, but it is not a place I would want to stay long term....

Also, not really much to do unless you want to mountain bike the slopes...

Winter Park is essentially a day trip destination for Denverites. In fact the ski area until recently was owned by Denver Parks. So the city never really developed like other CO resorts because few folks ever spent the night or never spent more than a night.
I agree with you. Kind of a boring place in summer.

 

[walkinwood]

Why not rent for the summer? That way, you have no hassles with renters, maintenance etc. And you can change where you summer each year if you wish.

 

[zinger1457]

Looks like Vail CO is trying to implement plans to reduce the number of part year residents by purchasing deed restrictions on new homes/apartments that are sold. According to the newspaper article 90% of homes that have been sold since 2010 are to second home owners causing the prices to go up so that full time residents (local workers) can't afford to live there. Don't really understand all the details on how this will work but the link below is the article.

Vail adopts ‘bold’ plan that calls for 1,000 new deed-restricted homes | VailDaily.com

 

[Willers]

Thanks for the feedback.

After spending some time online we've added some new places to visit. My criteria is relatively low housing cost (which rules out Telluride, Aspen, Tahoe, etc) with a small/medium town nearby. The isolated resort areas with no town seem lacking to me. Even a town of 3000-10,000 seems like it has more going on, some level of healthcare and restaurants beyond base lodge snack bars and god awful expensive tourist dining. Having a small city within an hour or so is good too IMO.

Some possibilities at this point:

Bear Lake Idaho/Utah
Eden Utah
Brian Head Utah
Sandpoint ID
Bend OR
Wenatchee WA
Ruidoso NM
Driggs ID

We had Sandpoint on our list too. Reasonable size and close to CDA and Spokane. Beautiful Lake and good sking, but we decided that the winters were just too gray for us.

We also looked at Driggs, but it was just too small.

Regarding housing costs, some of the towns still haven't quite recovered from the downturn (ours hasn't) so there are still pockets of value.

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[woodguy00]

Why not rent for the summer? That way, you have no hassles with renters, maintenance etc. And you can change where you summer each year if you wish.

We are looking to winter in our fifth wheel and have a base for the summers that can at least somewhat pay for itself during the winter. I can't imagine the flip would work. A condo available for short term rental in Arizona or Texas wouldn't be worth much in the summer.


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[walkinwood]

We are looking to winter in our fifth wheel and have a base for the summers that can at least somewhat pay for itself during the winter. I can't imagine the flip would work. A condo available for short term rental in Arizona or Texas wouldn't be worth much in the summer.


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I wasn't clear. My suggestion was not to buy at all. Live the winter in your 5th wheel and rent a condo in the mountains for the summer. I don't know if it is feasible for you to live without a home base, but it does give you a lot of flexibility.

 

[woodguy00]

I wasn't clear. My suggestion was not to buy at all. Live the winter in your 5th wheel and rent a condo in the mountains for the summer. I don't know if it is feasible for you to live without a home base, but it does give you a lot of flexibility.

Our thought is to live full time in the camper for perhaps a year or two while we find the 'perfect place' to settle. I think we need one permanent location after that to buy but then snowbird or parts of the year on the road. A ski house/condo as the base may make sense. I still need to dig into the economics of ownership/ winter rental.




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[Cap_Scarlet]

We are doing this ....sort of....but rather we are moving to a ski town permanently. In fact in two weeks!

We live in Europe and our town is in the Austrian alps.

Having owned a holiday home there for two years we're now taking the plunge and moving permanently as a precursor to retirement.

Last season I was able to ski around 30 days and this season aiming for more. The summers are also great with lots of hiking and biking.

 

[RobLJ]

We had a cabin up by the Royal Gorge outside of Canon City. Monarch ski area was about an hour and 10 minutes away. Loved it, but sold it when we retired and moved from Houston to Reno (Mt. Rose and Northstar resorts are about a 35 minute drive).
I fly fish, so I loved the mountain areas in summer (particularly as a contrast to Houston summers). Salida might go on your list; Monarch is 15 minutes from it.

 

[RobLJ]

Love Glenwood; Grandad's cabin was past Carbondale by Redstone, right off the Crystal River.

Glenwood Springs would be my top choice. Very pretty, nice fun town with lots to do, close to a small local ski hill called Sunlight and an hour from Aspen. Not too far from Colorado's wine country as well in Palisade.
You could also throw Gunnison into the mix being close to another Colorado gem, Crested Butte. Gunnison is the home of Western State University. It is a little remote though.

 

[movingrightalong]

We live in Utah and bought a condo in Park City during the real estate downturn a few years back. Given the low principal we have on it we earn a pretty good return after expenses with just the winter rentals. Occasionally we'll get a summer renter for a few weeks or a few months (at much lower rates of course) and that's just cream. Even though we're only an hour away we're there only a few times a year, but for what we rent the place out for in the winter, it's better for us to take the rental revenue and stay in a hotel when we're in town ;^).

 

[woodguy00]

We had a cabin up by the Royal Gorge outside of Canon City. Monarch ski area was about an hour and 10 minutes away. Loved it, but sold it when we retired and moved from Houston to Reno (Mt. Rose and Northstar resorts are about a 35 minute drive).
I fly fish, so I loved the mountain areas in summer (particularly as a contrast to Houston summers). Salida might go on your list; Monarch is 15 minutes from it.

Loved Salida on a trip a few years ago. Would Monarch generate a steady book of winter rentals?



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[woodguy00]

We live in Utah and bought a condo in Park City during the real estate downturn a few years back. Given the low principal we have on it we earn a pretty good return after expenses with just the winter rentals. Occasionally we'll get a summer renter for a few weeks or a few months (at much lower rates of course) and that's just cream. Even though we're only an hour away we're there only a few times a year, but for what we rent the place out for in the winter, it's better for us to take the rental revenue and stay in a hotel when we're in town ;^).

Thanks This is really helpful.


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[LARS]

I'm concerned over how small some resort areas are in regards to future medical needs. It also seems like some areas without real towns nearby could be pretty slow in the summer. Finding the right one would be important.


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Lived in Bend, OR and Jackson, WY collectively for ten years.

Bend being more of a "real" mountain town (approximately 70,000 people) compared to Jackson (more like 10,000).

Both were wonderful places to hang our hats; however, life basically revolves around the town as they are fairly isolated (Bend 3 1/2 hours to Portland over the mountains and Jackson 4 1/2 hours to SLC over/around mountains).

As far as medical care is concerned it is not a problem. Resort towns like Bend and Jackson punch way over their weight class in this regard as high quality doctors want to live in the communities. Thus, hospitals generally have their pick of the litter.

 

[woodguy00]

Lived in Bend, OR and Jackson, WY collectively for ten years.

Bend being more of a "real" mountain town (approximately 70,000 people) compared to Jackson (more like 10,000).

Both were wonderful places to hang our hats; however, life basically revolves around the town as they are fairly isolated (Bend 3 1/2 hours to Portland over the mountains and Jackson 4 1/2 hours to SLC over/around mountains).

As far as medical care is concerned it is not a problem. Resort towns like Bend and Jackson punch way over their weight class in this regard as high quality doctors want to live in the communities. Thus, hospitals generally have their pick of the litter.

Thanks for the info. I can see both of those towns having great care due to sufficient size and the ability to attract docs. We were concerned looking at Rangeley, ME (pop 1500 MOL) and Sugarloaf, ME (Pop a few hundred year round).

 

[hesperus]

The well worn saying where I live is "just another day in paradise". And they are right. Been living in and around ski towns for last 30+ years, mainly in Utah & Colorado. I absolutely love it, and there is something to look forward to in both summer and winter. In fact, I am probably more socially active in winter, with many of my friends spending the days skiing together. Where I grew up in the midwest, winter was something people just grinded through. Here, we all look forward to the first snow. In fact we are due for our first snowfall this weekend. WooHooo!

I actually don't like advertising the place where I live, because growth is always an issue in such a beautiful place. I've seen too many towns lose some of that charm when they are 'discovered'. As they say, everyone wants to come here and then shut the door behind them The only upside to growth is that our real estate values go up as well.

The prime ski town locations will get the best healthcare providers because they WANT to live there. I know several top medical professionals in their field, and they came here for the lifestyle. They could make better money elsewhere, but they chose this instead.

 

[Willers]

We're looking at snow on Sunday too!!! Love mountain life so far!



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[check6]

We are doing this ....sort of....but rather we are moving to a ski town permanently. In fact in two weeks!

We live in Europe and our town is in the Austrian alps.

Having owned a holiday home there for two years we're now taking the plunge and moving permanently as a precursor to retirement.

Last season I was able to ski around 30 days and this season aiming for more. The summers are also great with lots of hiking and biking.

Congrats on your move! We were in St Gilgen/St Wolfgang last week and I envy you. Where in Austria are you relocating?

If I could relive my life all over, I would buy a condo in Wengen, Switzerland.