Rasing Canaan article 2/16/05
February 23, 2005
Interesting article, including a possible Boarderbabe reference.
And I thought nobody noticed!
Just wish there was a pic of that instead of the one showing White Grass. I believe you and your friends would ahve been more interesting.
another good one. my mom kept both articles and i couldnt remember the name of this one. thanks for posting it. definately a good sign for those who have made the investment. i know with my small investment in Northwoods at T-line has already shown me great benefits. There is a home that some guy (apparently big in homeland security) is building over on the slopes of the Winterset development at Tline. the price I have been told is roughly $2.6M. Now call me crazy but i am pretty sure for someone to spend this kind of cheese they would probably have some type of information regarding the future of the mountain. I spent like $60K. i really didnt know nor care about the future. I just liked the area. to drop nearly 3M in west virginia on ANYTHING is big. the home is being built with 5 levels. a 6th is gonna be underground parking. Oh, almost forgot, also an indoor pool. SICK
I'm not sure I'd give a guy who lays down that kind of cash on construction and leaves his home half-built with no roof through the winter much credit for knowing a lot about real estate investments.
not sure tgd. but i also guess he may not have any control over the current status of the house. i know getting anything done up there isnt done without facing some major hurdles. i guess you are possibly right regarding his "knowledge" of real estate. just to me it seems quite odd not only for the amount of cash he is laying but also for all the other folks dropping 300-400 for lots only then building. i mean, for winterset, whats the average cost now up there with lot and home, like 750K+++?
The realestate market is very fluid. It was my understanfg that the housing boom in the DC area was fueled by the bush tax cuts for the fat cats coupled with favorable interest rates. The housing markets (especially for resort properties) fluctuate from year to year. While it may still be a good market for a few years, the resort selling more lots and building more houses will only dilute the market and reduce both your rental value and your future selling price. This is particualrly true if T-Line does not put the sales back into the resort to keep demand up for people to move there / ski there.
well believe me, i didnt buy there to make money. just to ahve a place to go with family. my 3 yr old son loves it there as does my dog. its wonderful in the winter but the spring/summer/fall is also a magical time there. being only 3 hrs from my home makes it the perfect destination any weekend i want. just throw some stuff in the truck and head out. we feel very fortunate to be able to spend as much time there as we do.
Sorry I was talkign arround my point. and you summed it up very well.
skiTLINE: I feel the same way about our place at Timberline. Best investment in FAMILY I could ever make. My 3 year old daughter loves going to the mountain house every weekend we can. We also enjoy all 4 seasons with hiking and mountain biking as well as skiing. Canaan Valley is truly a magical place. I noticed this the first time I was there 10 years ago, and the feeling remains the same - if not stronger - 60 trips (and counting) later!
Tom
ps, our Labs love it too.
Amen. i look at it this way. say the ski business at tline went under and nobody bought it (highly unlikely) i would then just purchase from the now defunct owner one of his snowmobiles and that would serve as my lift. the wife could drive me up. i ski down. drive her up. she skis down. would sure as hell be a lot quicker than the current lift situation.....hahaha
I think that huge house/small hotel someone is building at the corner of winterset and dew drop might just be bigger(sq footage) than the Timberline ski lodge, and as an appraiser I would say it will probably be worth more than the lodge when it is finally finished and appraised.
Underlying both the DC market and the regional resort market are demand functions. The DC market is booming in large part because of a housing shortage- there's estimated to be 2 million new workers in the DC area over the next 20-30 years but currently regional housing plans are only designed to accomodate about 1.4 million of them. Additionally, with the growth in population is coming- one can assume- a larger resort recreation market. To the extent that resorts are keeping pace with or underexpanding relative to the rise in demand for resort area housing, the markets aren't likely to be diluted. However, if you get an overbuild then you will see a dilution in home prices. I don't know enough about the resort markets to argue one way or another, save to say that new homes being constructed doesn't equal dilution of the real estate market.
