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Ideal ski towns for the future factoring in all issues?

deadheadskier

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DHS is fine. You guys are missing what is going on here. You have a Younger urbanite that loves NYC vs an older much more rural loving guy from NH. Both really love where they are at. DHS takes offence that most of the places he would consider decent eating where shat on by ABC. I would probably react similarly. I have been to NYC a bunch because my company is based there. Of course there is fine dining. But I could never live there. Nope. I guess I fall closer to DHS's ideal than ABC.

Oh, I take no offense to anything ABC says. Lol
She can disagree, debate and argue away until her hearts content. It's both amusing and kinda nutty

She's stated she's semi-retired. I'm mid 40s.
 

JimG.

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I have skied with April (abc) at Belleayre. As usual, her demeanor in person is much different than her online persona. I had fun skiing with her and Cornhead and I enjoyed our conversations.

This is another example of why I truly despise online communication. Not sure how a technology that does nothing but make anyone (including me I'm sure) who uses it seem like a total asshole became essential to life today. Just look around at the damage it has caused to society.
 

1dog

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I have skied with April (abc) at Belleayre. As usual, her demeanor in person is much different than her online persona. I had fun skiing with her and Cornhead and I enjoyed our conversations.

This is another example of why I truly despise online communication. Not sure how a technology that does nothing but make anyone (including me I'm sure) who uses it seem like a total asshole became essential to life today. Just look around at the damage it has caused to society.
True dat. Hard to determine tone, intonation, even intent. Thank the Lord, is my one and only exposure to the social disease referred to as social media. Its anything but.

Great doc is The Social Dilemma. Worth the 90 mins.
 

BenedictGomez

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Made it through all ~300 posts, even the sidetracked discussion of pub gastronomy. Whew...

This is something I've been thinking a lot about lately as we've been considering either potentially moving out west or to eastern PA, on a timeline, and that timeline is soon approaching quick. Out west we've eliminated Montana & Colorado. Realistically we're down to moving to one of these 3 options:

Utah is currently in the lead & we actually really like Midway quite a bit. It seems upper middle-class and very clean, with many families, and you're right between Sundance & Park City/Canyons. That's a pretty awesome spot with lots of lakes and rivers for boating & fishing too. The east side of Heber City & Kamas also seem nice and are growing as well & right on top of millions of acres of national park. I like how that area is very close to the skiing, yet you're outside of all the Park City nonsense & not living amongst tourists. I do recall thetrailboss telling me public schools typically suck in Utah, so that's something I need to research. The economy is absolutely booming in Utah & jobs are very plentiful, so that's a plus.

Idaho we've never been to but I feel like we should probably visit there to check it out. I've heard Grand Targhee is an absolute gem & of course Jackson Hole wouldn't be too far at all, but I've also heard Driggs/Victor is dead, dead, dead, whereas others say it's growing quickly & probably wont be dead for long if you're the sort who wants to place a bet on moving to an area right before it booms. It definitely seems way more affordable than most ski country for sure. Looking on Redfin I see $500k & $600k homes that would be $1M or more elsewhere near snow. Big risk is, god forbid anything happened with my job, could I replace it out there?

Pennsy we're well familiar with as we live just over the Delaware. If we just hop over the river to eastern PA & buy a house there, seasonal rentals in Vermont would have been our course of action, but something really wonderful happened to me last month & now I think what I'd do is buy a 2nd house in Vermont. It looks like you can get decent homes near Magic for $180k - $250k that would be more than sufficient for ski season, and maybe an occasional summer / fall trip, and I'm familiar enough with Magic to know it would be a great place for my daughter to ski (though I dont know if their ski school is any good). The big negative there is s.VT snow is wildly undependable & you can get entire years that stink. And anecdotally, I've heard Vermont bludgeons 2nd homeowners too, so I'd need to look into that.

Lots to think about.
 
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ss20

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A minute from the Alta exit off the I-15!
I don't think anyone here would advocate for owing a second home in VT unless you truly love where you're gonna be. Big money pit from my understanding. But it's not about the money at that point I'd hope!
 

NYDB

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Made it through all ~300 posts, even the sidetracked discussion of pub gastronomy. Whew...

This is something I've been thinking a lot about lately as we've been considering either potentially moving out west or to eastern PA, on a timeline, and that timeline is soon approaching quick. Out west we've eliminated Montana & Colorado. Realistically we're down to moving to one of these 3 options:

Utah is currently in the lead & we actually really like Midway quite a bit. It seems upper middle-class and very clean, with many families, and you're right between Sundance & Park City/Canyons. That's a pretty awesome spot with lots of lakes and rivers for boating & fishing too. The east side of Heber City & Kamas also seem nice and are growing as well & right on top of millions of acres of national park. I like how that area is very close to the skiing, yet you're outside of all the Park City nonsense & not living amongst tourists. I do recall thetrailboss telling me public schools typically suck in Utah, so that's something I need to research. The economy is absolutely booming in Utah & jobs are very plentiful, so that's a plus.

Idaho we've never been to but I feel like we should probably visit there to check it out. I've heard Grand Targhee is an absolute gem & of course Jackson Hole wouldn't be too far at all, but I've also heard Driggs/Victor is dead, dead, dead, whereas others say it's growing quickly & probably wont be dead for long if you're the sort who wants to place a bet on moving to an area right before it booms. It definitely seems way more affordable than most ski country for sure. Looking on Redfin I see $500k & $600k homes that would be $1M or more elsewhere near snow. Big risk is, god forbid anything happened with my job, could I replace it out there?

Pennsy we're well familiar with as we live just over the Delaware. If we just hop over the river to eastern PA & buy a house there, seasonal rentals in Vermont would have been our course of action, but something really wonderful happened to me last month & now I think what I'd do is buy a 2nd house in Vermont. It looks like you can get decent homes near Magic for $180k - $250k that would be more than sufficient for ski season, and maybe an occasional summer / fall trip, and I'm familiar enough with Magic to know it would be a great place for my daughter to ski (though I dont know if their ski school is any good). The big negative there is s.VT snow is wildly undependable & you can get entire years that stink. And anecdotally, I've heard Vermont bludgeons 2nd homeowners too, so I'd need to look into that.

Lots to think about.
You may want to check those prices again for so vt. A lot has changed since covid. I think its more like 250 for a nice little fixer upper and 350+ for a place you could move into with minimal work.
 

NYDB

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I don't think anyone here would advocate for owing a second home in VT unless you truly love where you're gonna be. Big money pit from my understanding. But it's not about the money at that point I'd hope!
I have a modest place since 1996. Its probably cost me $300,000 to keep it during that time period ( taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, etc), and has appreciated about $170,000 during that time period. So no, not a wise investment. And no, its not at all about the money.
 
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1dog

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If its just about ROI in terms of money, Maybe not. If its time away w fam/friends, maybe worth it. Anyone who likes to tinker or has to have things a certain way at home, will have that x2 at a second or vacation home. If its just time and freedom from worry - just rent a seasonal rental. When the water heater goes, you make a phone call - just like a tenant in an apartment. worry-free.

Costs you maybe $10-$18K a year for a Nov- April ski house. plus utilities. if you got 2, 3 or 4 families, its less than cost of a week in some tourist trap island resort.
In high season, $600-$1000 a night is not unusual. Each family gets one week alone and it more than pays for itself.

If well-to-do, $7500 a year isn't that high, and hey, rent it out for a week or two and cut that in half. Best part is not lugging gear up every weekend.

Take cost of your current house expenses- double it, add vacancy and animals( mice, groundhogs, even had a white minx in basement once), unreliable power supply, and lack of a good. caretaker and its a formula for headaches most of the year.

Most on here who have spent 15-25 years observing all forms of 'gettin' the goods' for skiing/riding/hiking/climbing understand that many have a sometimes secret admiration for those ski bums who have nothing better to do that ski powder days, have very low overhead, and don't have those huge invisible burdens on their shoulders- work, investments, balancing it all with leisure, family, friends, etc.
But we all get old, and having something to fall back on is a good plan.
 

cdskier

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I don't think anyone here would advocate for owing a second home in VT unless you truly love where you're gonna be. Big money pit from my understanding. But it's not about the money at that point I'd hope!
Why do you say that? What makes a second home in VT different than other places? As a couple others have said, yes, you're going to spend money and shouldn't view it as an investment. But I'd argue that would be true of a number of places where you could buy a vacation home. I bought mine to use it and enjoy it. Don't really care what it is worth when I go to sell it down the road. From my perspective, I'm getting my money's worth out of it.
 

kingslug

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Our little condo has worked out just fine so far. We can rent it year round if we want and so far have put in a new floor and windows..about 14K so far. But its gone up in value at least 50K..and rent has paid for the improvement so far.
 

BenedictGomez

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I have a modest place since 1996. Its probably cost me $300,000 to keep it during that time period ( taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, etc), and has appreciated about $170,000 during that time period. So no, not a wise investment. And no, its not at all about the money.

That's a net of a little over $425 a month, which doesn't seem "unwise" at all IMO if you've enjoyed it for 25 years, but YOMV.

As for home prices, I was just looking on Trulia, so those prices were legit. That said, there was very little available which I'm sure is a function of COVID19, but COVID19's effect on the housing market will not be a durable one. Economical reality will overtake emotion & fear once normality returns. Never a better time to sell than now though.
 

abc

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I have a modest place since 1996. Its probably cost me $300,000 to keep it during that time period ( taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, etc), and has appreciated about $170,000 during that time period. So no, not a wise investment. And no, its not at all about the money.
But the "carrying cost" is for you to use it. It needs to be balanced against hotel cost if you didn't have the place. I bet it doesn't come up too shy.

That's the attraction of real estate. What other investment you get to sleep it it? ;)
 

Smellytele

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Right where I want to be
But the "carrying cost" is for you to use it. It needs to be balanced against hotel cost if you didn't have the place. I bet it doesn't come up too shy.

That's the attraction of real estate. What other investment you get to sleep it it? ;)
I wouldn’t say hotel more like rental cost as you would have to compare it something of similar size and with similar amenities.
 
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