buying a ski house/condo in vt

[gladerider]

anyone bought a ski house/condo in VT, where did you end up and why?
any pitfalls?

i am seriously thinking about buying a ski condo in VT.

my family loved Stowe, but it's too far for us to go up everyweek. it takes us 6 1/2 hours each way on a good day. some determining factors are:
- distance from NYC (under 5 hours each way)
- easy access to ski mountains in VT
- nice town ambiance (restaurant, shopping, etc...)
- reasonable price relative to other towns
- reasonable tax

 

[Mikec13]

I have actually done both - bought house sold house bought condo

Condo definitely the way to go unless you are going to use it year round and want more privacy/outdoor space

Taxes in VT are not great...most VT towns are not too sympathetic to the second homeowner

If you haven't picked a mountain yet I would encourage you to rent for a season...you can rent most places for about twice what you would pay in taxes...this will give you a better chance to get acquainted with the town and the mountain...the further you get away from NY/CT the lower the prices, the shorter the liftlines and the better the snow

If you don't buy ski on/off and have to get in a car it doesn't really make much difference if you are 5 minutes from the mountain or 20 minutes...the further away the lower the cost...we aren't ski on/off but we are on a free shuttle service which works out great...good luck!

 

[gladerider]

where did you end up?

 

[ALLSKIING]

I rent a condo at Killington. I like the area...shopping for my wife and fun things for the kids to do. The best part is you have Killington and Pico, then 1 hr away you have sugarbush and mrg. 45 min south you have magic. I think its a great central location.

 

[deadheadskier]

- reasonable tax

Good luck!! Taxes on second homes in Vermont are very high. The logic is, if a flatlander can afford to buy a second home, they can afford to pay higher taxes.


Just as an example, my folks owned a second home in Vermont. The property was valued at 150K in Ludlow, the taxes on that house were $4600 when they sold it in 2003. And this house was not on the slopes of Okemo, not on a lake, it was 5 miles north of downtown on the way to Killington.

Manchester or right outside of it for cheaper properties, might be a good bet for you. Only an hour and fifteen minutes beyond Albany and you've got Stratton and Bromley right there, Magic 20 minutes away, Okemo and Mt. Snow within 45 and Killington/Pico just over an hour.

 

[laxski]

We ended up buying at Mt. Snow. Iwanted to go further north but 8 years later I'm glad we ended up there. More skiing on Sunday some times just over night. We are 4-5 hours away depending on stops weather etc. We have bus to the mountain and a well-maintained ski-home trail to my door.My family loves the mountain and with new ownership there were some great improvements this year.

 

[MommaBear]

We also ended up near Mount Snow, small complex off the mountain in West Dover just this year. Looked for years in the Chester area and the corridor between Okemo and Killington but couldn't find anything affordable and/or fit our need.

I'm glad now we went with a condo versus house. Condo fee covers maintenance company to check on the place (inside & out) couple times a week. They shovel, they plow. Its nice to arrive Friday night and not have to deal with all that. And we've been pleasantly surprised with a few powder days - being up there already, it was 10 minutes and we were in it. Versus a nail biting 2+ hour ride to get there.

The local Andiron Inn has billiard tables at a reasonable hourly rate. Kids can stay till 9pm, nice for older kids. Haven't been to the movie theater in town yet, we do movie rentals instead so we can crash early (from the long days of skiing - no more saving some energy for the ride back to CT). And Stratton, Okemo and Killington are within a reasonable ride if we choose to ski elsewhere.

 

[RichT]

I live in Rockland, and for the past 20yrs, I've been driving to the Catskills 97mi door to door 1 3/4hours. Did the VT thing for two years.....NOT for me! The conditions are not that much differant than VT (this is the NE ya know!) The taxes won't kill you and you can ski all day Sunday and be home to watch 60 mins! We've even gottin up early on a Saturday to go ski at Mt Snow 2 1/2 hours.

 

[nelsapbm]

Don't buy in a resort town. Find a "normal" Vermont town and look there. Your taxes will most likely be lower - real estate values in resort towns are much higher than in the rest of the state (with some exceptions). For instance, if you're interested in Sugarbush/MRG, look in Bristol or Starksboro. Killington or Okemo? Check out Wallingford. Stowe? Try Morrisville or Hyde Park. We live in a non-resort town 1/2 hour away from MRG and find our taxes to be very reasonable. The non-homestead tax rate in our town is not that much different from the homestead rate.

Here is a link for the education tax rates...

http://www.state.vt.us/tax/pdf.word.excel/pvr/schooltaxrates.pdf

 

[castlerock]

This topic deserves 10000 words, but...

A big question is what age is your family. If you have young children, a condo at/near the mountain, has a lot of advantages, Other kids, convenience, no drive etc.

We bought a condo at Sugarbush 6 years ago when my oldest was 5. It has been absolutely fantastic. The critical mass of people allows a social life and flexibility for all of of us. Some time in the future we will get a house, but it is too much fun being on the hill now.

As for the skiing, if you are a serious soft snow, woods skier, you won't be happy south of Sugarbush. The MRV is also a unique place in VT. (No traffic lights and no McDonalds). If you are content on groomers, you have a lot more flexibility.

 

[Brettski]

The property was valued at 150K in Ludlow, the taxes on that house were $4600

You're calling that high?

Come to Jersey

 

[Vinny]

Agree with Castlerock that the age of your children (if any) is a big factor. Also, how and when you're planning to use the place needs to be part of the thought process.

In all cases, you need to think beyond ski season. It's impossible to decide what is best without considering many factors. If you really think it through, you'll be happy. Be very realistic with how many days you will be visiting. Also, in almost all cases, east coast ski condos are not great capital investments, so the decision really needs to be made based on your enjoyment.

When our kids were young we owned a condo at Windham Mountain. It worked out great for that time in our lives. We wanted a short car ride for the kids and the mountain was the right size for us. We also like hiking and for many years we used the place a lot. It didn't appreciate at all, but we'd do it over again in a second.

As our kids got older, at around high school age, we sold the place in Windham and did a lot of research looking for another mountain purchase. We finally bought a quarter-share timeshare (13 weeks/year) at the Grand Summit at Mt. Snow. I'm writing this from there right now...BTW, Monday and Tuesday were great, and heading out to HUGE snow in about an hour or so. This has been a perfect situation for us and worth researching this or something similar. Note: I have absolutely no interest in anyone purchasing at Mt. Snow. It may sound like a sales pitch only because it has worked out perfectly for us in our situation.

Some positives:
*Costs are significantly lower than a condo.
*We receive a couple of grand per year in rental fees when we don't use it.
*We trade 5 non-ski weeks a year into the RCI timeshare. With RCI we give each of our 3 kids a week and we take 2 weeks to go anywhere we want.
*There are maintenance fees but no worries about doing any maintenance yourself.
*Daily maid service is included in the fees. No cleaning, making beds, washing towels, etc., etc.
*Huge outdoor heated pool and two very large jacuzzi tubs that overlook the slopes.
*On site health club (small), sauna, steam room, and spa. All free.

We're retired, so we also get to use the place just about year round on what is called a space availalbe program. If they're not 85% booked, you can stay here just for the maintenance fees. We ski mid-week through the whole season almost as if we owned a full share. We also come up here in the fall and summer to hike and motorcycle tour. You also get a really big ski-locker that is yours full time year 'round, so we leave our skis up here during the season.

Having said that, some downsides to timeshares are:

*If you can't ski mid-week, you only have the place for the weeks you own. The weeks rotate every year.
*You can't fix the place up as you'd like. You use their furniture, fixtures, pictures etc.
*You still pay a tax assesment and monthly fees.
*West Dover has enough nice restaurants, but it's not the most happening town by any standard.
*If you don't have enough time off to use the RCI weeks, that may be a downside.
*Other people use your place.
*It's not "your own place". That may be very important to you. It does feel different when we walk into our place here vs. our condo in Windham. However, it's also a lot nicer knowing we don't have to worry about anything when we leave.

Good luck with your decision and enjoy whatever you decide to purchase.

 

[deadheadskier]

You're calling that high?

Come to Jersey

Comparitive to the value of the house, yes $4600 is high. That's a rate of 3.06%, which for a place that has minimal roads to maintain and minimal services to staff is pretty darn high. I'm currently looking to buy in NH in that price range and the property taxes are more around 2.25% and NH is known as a place with high property taxes. The big kick between the legs on my parents taxes was had it been their primary residence, the tax would've been almost half that. That's Act 60 for you


What would the tax rate be on a 150K home be in Jersey? That is assuming you could buy more than an outhouse for that amount in NJ :lol:

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

I'm not in Vt., I'm in Wilmington, NY home of Whiteface. Taxes are not too bad here. I just wanted to chime in on the condo aspect of the question. We too orginally planned on getting a condo/townhouse, but after doing extensive research in the area for over a year we decided that for us there was more upside in a single family home. The major reasons why we reached this conclusion was storage, land use and no condo fees which can be very expensive in the Lake Placid area. My home is in a forested area so there is little maintenace in that regard and I hired someone to plow my driveway. This is our first year owning and so far everything has worked out great.

 

[drjeff]

We ended up buying at Mt. Snow. Iwanted to go further north but 8 years later I'm glad we ended up there. More skiing on Sunday some times just over night. We are 4-5 hours away depending on stops weather etc. We have bus to the mountain and a well-maintained ski-home trail to my door.My family loves the mountain and with new ownership there were some great improvements this year.

I'll second this statement, except that I have a 2:40 drive to Mount Snow and haven't owned quite as long there, and I'm across the street from Mount Snow rather than at a ski home location.

The longer I own up there the more and more I find that my family is spending a significant number of weekends there, not just during ski season, but year round. Lots of fun stuff to do in the spring/summer/fall.

BTW, if you have you kids, having a place where there's a community center with a pool and/or other non-snow activites is a GREAT thing. The complex I'm in has on site pool,. healthclub, tennis courts, indoor raquet ball and basketball courts an ice skating pond and a cross country ski/snow shoe hiking facility. So when the lifts stop spinning for the day, there's still lots of activities to do. Also, while you do pay condo/association fees, NOT having to worry about things like snow removal and security while you're not there has been a great plus to me and my family and the townhouse we own verses a single stand alone home like we used to own.

 

[gladerider]

thanks for your info guys

i have 2 kids in grammar school. we kinda ruled out owning a house due to maintanance issues. i cannot invest the time to maintain myself. the timeshare option doesn't really work for us since we are looking to make it a permanent home after the kids leave for college. that leaves us with condo/townhouse option.

the high tax is surprising. wow. looks like i gotta do some research on taxes.

i will be up in manchester this weekend so i will check it out a little bit. i will be up in warren in 2 weeks so i will also be checking out the MRV.

 

[TwinTips21]

My parents bought our condo on Ascutney in or around 1994-1996 for 35k and it's now valued at around 100k, the only downfall is that it's on Ascutney which isn't really the type of mountain geared toward the way I like to ski.

 

[tekweezle]

anybody look into NH? i have a friend who recently bought there. they say that taxes are lower and more friendlier to 2nd home owners. plus you are just a short drive to VT.

must be good since Killington wanted to secede from VT for NH!

 

[atkinson]

Anybody who believes that the snow at Hunter is essentially the same as it is in Vermont, may be interested in a bridge I have for sale. It's a bit of a fixer-upper, but the price is right.

John

 

[Paul]

anybody look into NH? i have a friend who recently bought there. they say that taxes are lower and more friendlier to 2nd home owners. plus you are just a short drive to VT.

must be good since Killington wanted to secede from VT for NH!

I am. Looked at the MWV for a bit, mostly for comparative purposes. Also looked around Franconia Notch. Right now have my eye closer to 91. Not far from Sunapee.