Is this Subdivision Going to the Dogs?

By Todd Anderson

Dec 14, 2017

Park City, UT is often referred to as “Bark City” by its residents, but many Home Owners Associations aren’t so dog friendly. What can you do when your Buyer or Renter has an emotional support dog?

I met someone the other night at a social function who told me he was a member of a home owners association board of directors. He mentioned having recently dealt with a renter with an Emotional Support Animal.

The Homeowners Association (HOA) has a strict ‘no dogs’ policy. The renter presented the HOA with a Certificate of Registration for the dog and a letter from a psychiatrist stating that the dog is an essential part of the renter’s treatment for anxiety. So, the question becomes: which one wins, the rules of the HOA or the renter?

A 2013 newsletter from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) states this:

The Fair Housing Act prohibits landlords from discriminating based on disability, race, color, national origin, religion, sex, and familial status.

Further: “Disability-related complaints, including those that involve assistance animals, are the most common discrimination complaint we receive. This notice will help housing providers better understand and meet their obligation to grant reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities that require assistance animals to fully use and enjoy their housing.”

HUD’s new notice explains housing providers’ obligations under the Fair Housing Act, including the requirement to provide reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities who require assistance animals. Pet restrictions cannot be used to deny or limit housing to people with disabilities who require the use of an assistance animal because of their disability. Housing providers must grant reasonable accommodations in such instances, in accordance with the law.

In effect, the renter is stating that they have a disability and that there is little that the HOA can do in terms of disallowing the dog without being in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

The HOA director I met checked with a friend who is a lawyer who told him that: “you don’t want me to fight this, you can’t afford it.”

In a recent dealing with a client with an emotional support dog, I initially thought to nudge toward Park City complexes that do not have a ‘no dog’ policy, but I realized that even that could be construed as a violation. In the end I made sure that the client was aware of the policies of the HOA’s and directed this potential Buyer to a few attorneys that specialize in dealing with these issues.

Comments or Questions? Contact the YouInParkCity.com Group (435)962-9472

Tags: Park City real estate, dogs, subdivision, HOA, comfort, Fair Housing, HUD, Emotional Support Animal
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Park City’s Real Estate Inventory Problem

By Todd Anderson

Dec 07, 2017

Like many other communities in the country, Park City, Utah is experiencing a lack of available homes for sale.

How can that be when a search of the active properties on Wasatch Back MLS (Summit and Wasatch Counties) brings nearly 1900 results?

Just over 700 of those listings are for Vacant Land (Acreage and Building lots)
Another 140+ of these listings are for Fractional Ownerships or Commercial properties
So, there are 1042 active listings of Homes and Condominiums on the WBMLS
109 of these are outside Summit or Wasatch Counties (mostly in the greater Salt Lake area)
Further Subtraction of the homes in the Heber Valley, Kamas Valley and Coalville area removes another 240+ homes from the initial search results

The final tally leaves 691 Homes and Condominiums in the Greater Park City Area for sale (this includes Park City Proper, the Snyderville Basin, and the Jordanelle Reservoir area). The split between Homes and Condominiums is almost even (348 vs 343).

Year to date sales for homes and Condominiums in the Greater Park City area is 1335 (574 Houses and 761 Condos). This data gives a 6.7 month supply for Homes and a 5 month supply for Condos. These numbers sound very reasonable for most metro markets in the US and might even be considered a Buyer’s market by some standards. A deeper dive shows the real issues in the Park City Market.

Of the active homes for sale, 223 have an asking price of $2 million or more; this is a 17 month supply at the sales rate so far this year. At the other end of the spectrum, there are only 32 Homes listed for less than $1 million; at current sales rates would sell these homes in a mere 1.5 months. Homes between $1 and $2 show a 5 month supply at the current absorption rate.

Of the current active listings in Old Town, the median asking price is over $2.1 million
Only 6 Homes on the market in Old Town have a price under $1 million; none of these were built after 1920 and half of these are under 1000 square feet.
Sales prices for new construction homes in Old Town are averaging approximately $1000/sq ft.
The Pinebrook and Jeremy Ranch areas in the Snyderville Basin have 2.5 months worth of inventory at current absorption rates.
There were 62 sales this year in these areas under $1 million; there are currently 6 homes for sale in Jeremy Ranch and Pinebrook with an asking price below $1 million.

Condominium sales and active listings show similar discrepancies between inventories at higher and lower prices.

There are 31 active condo listings priced above $1 million, a little over 1 year’s worth of inventory at the current absorption rate (note the 5 month condo supply mentioned above).
The Racquet Club Condominiums in Park Meadows have seen 4 sales this year all representing the highest prices ever recorded for the area.
There were 46 condo sales in Pinebrook this year, there are currently ZERO on the market.

The lack of inventory in certain price points can lead Sellers to believe that they can get any price they choose, but that just really isn’t the case. The current low mortgage rates mean that many Buyers are still getting a mortgage, and in that case the property will need to appraise. Appraisals are a back-ward looking price determination based on recent sales, this keeps prices from jumping too fast or Sellers getting a high price just because they have the only one on the market. Inventory that is on the market a long time is usually over-priced; Buyers won’t pay too much over the last comparable sale unless there is truly something special.

Park City’s low inventory levels can make both Buying and Selling harder (for different reasons), but either way you’ll find that the knowledge and guidance of a local real estate professional is a must. Contact the YouInParkCity.com Group (435)962-9472 at KW Park City Keller Williams to help you through.

Tags: condominiums, homes, Park City real estate, Snyderville, park city housing invetory, Park City Market, supply, absorption
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Making Sense of Park City, UT Housing Prices

By Todd Anderson

Dec 02, 2017

Park City, Utah home and condominium prices in general are still rising, but a few things have had me scratching my head recently.

I study the data on the Wasatch Back (formerly Park City) Multiple Listing Service (MLS) daily. I watch the new listings, pended sales, completed sales, removed listings and price changes depending on the day of the week, there are 35-75 daily changes.

Price Changes can really give an idea of which way the market is trending although in some cases they make me wonder “what was that agent or owner thinking?” when they priced it originally. Recently I sent a new listing to a client with a note stating, “this is priced well and likely won’t last long”. Two weeks later it still hadn’t sold which made me question my knowledge, but then a price increase on the property showed up with the price going UP by nearly 35%. I somewhat wrote this off to an agent with little experience in our market, but I noticed something similar from a seasoned agent that knows our Park City real estate market well. This time it was a 20% price increase, but both properties remain on the market a few weeks later waiting for offers on their increased prices. Maybe we can chalk it up to greedy Sellers(?).

While price increases on listed Park City properties are fairly rare outside of new construction which often sees pricing go up as the projects are closer to complete, price reductions are common. Owners may like to “test” the market with a high initial price only to lower it after a few weeks. Lately though it has not been uncommon to see prices be lowered by 20% or more. Seeing a $500,000 drop on the price of a home is surely a good talking point, but I’m not convinced that it is a great marketing strategy. Buyers will tend to not even look at a property that is too far above the market and Sellers often get “anchored” to their original price whether or not it was realistic.

The Park City real estate market has a lot of moving parts and inventory can be quite slim depending on what exactly you have to sell or are looking to buy. Properties that are priced well move quickly, but it doesn’t mean that you can get or need to pay 20% more than the market value.

If you are looking to Buy or Sell property in the Park City, Utah area or just want a better feel for what is going on in the market, contact a realty professional with the YouInParkCity.com Group

(435)962-9472.

Tags: market, Park City, Park City real estate, Utah, housing prices, buy property, sell property
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Real Estate Sales in Park City. Q1, 2017

By Todd Anderson

Apr 12, 2017

The real estate market in Park City, UT sky-rocketed during the first quarter of 2017.

Comparing the first quarter real estate sales of 2017 to the first quarter of 2016 looks similar to the snowfall comparisons between the two years.

Unit volume sales of Single Family homes were up nearly 20%
Dollar volume of Single Family homes sales was up nearly 25%
Condominium unit sales were up nearly 40%
Condominium dollar volume was up a whopping 74%

With all that said, the YouInParkCity.com Group knows that 90 days’ worth of sales isn’t enough to be statistically relevant and the small sample size we are dealing with is easily skewed. If we remove the $50M worth of sales at the Stein Eriksen Residences (SER), condominium unit volume changes to being up 30% with dollar volume up 35%.

The timing of new product to the market definitely impacts our numbers in the first quarter which is historically one of the slowest of the year. In addition to SER mentioned above, a similar story may have happened around the Jordanelle Reservoir where unit sales we up nearly 60% with the completion of many townhomes at Black Rock Ridge and Park’s Edge.

The story-line that may be more relevant and reliable in terms of the data is about scarcity. The greater Park City area currently has under 800 homes and condominiums for sale; the first quarter (which we mentioned is normally slow) had over 300 completed sales. That is less than 9 months inventory at the current sales volume. This isn’t necessarily out of whack until we look at pricing and sales within price points.

Current for Sale Inventory of 440 Condos and 340 Homes in greater Park City has been relatively stable for the past four years
The median sales price of a home over the past year has been approx. $1.25M there are 57 active listings below this price (2.5 months’ worth of inventory)
The median sales price for a condominium has been $525,000; there are 105 options on the market below this price (3 months’ worth of inventory)

Note that the stats here are just raw data Park City area home and condo numbers and really don’t take locations, views, finishes and all the things that make a home unique and special into account. Thirty percent of the sales in the past year were on the market for less than two weeks.

Having someone that knows the market and the specifics of what you want to buy or have to sell is imperative. Contact the YouInParkCity.com Group for all your Park City Real Estate needs.

Tags: Park City, Park City real estate, Real Estate, Utah, homes for sale, market sales, 2017, condos for sale
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Park City Real Estate Sales 2016 Q1

By Todd Anderson

May 16, 2016

With the ski season in Park City now over (everyone except Mother Nature and the snow gods believe this to be true), it is time to take a look at real estate sales since January and our current Park City Real Estate Market.

If we had to size it all up in one line, it might read “Prices are up and sales volume (in units) is down” but that really doesn’t tell the whole story.

Park City, UT has a complex real estate market made up of many sub-markets; it is in-town vs out-of-town, in the Park City school district versus out, ski-in/ski-out versus a shuttle to the slopes, the Heber Valley, the Kamas Valley, Resort/Second home versus primary residence, dogs vs cats and more. We’ll take a look at some of these sub markets with a strong focus on prices; if we’ve missed something that is particularly important to you call or email us and we’ll give you an in depth look at the area that means the most to you as a Buyer or Seller.

Quarter vs Quarter stats may be too small of a sample size for comparison, but:
Old Town & Lower Deer Valley condo sales are down considerably while median sales prices are relatively flat
Empire Pass condo sales are flat while median sales prices dropped considerably (low sales at the Montage likely impacted this number greatly)
Canyons Village sales were buoyed by Blackstone new construction sales but were otherwise flat
Jordanelle area condo sales are almost exclusively new construction completions

While the number of available homes and condominiums for sale in the greater Park City area (In-town, Snyderville (out-of-town) and the Jordanelle area) has remained fairly constant over the past couple of years, asking prices for the available inventory has become very skewed.

Homes in Park City under $1million

The Single Family home sales inside the city limits show a median sales price of just over $1.5M for the past 12 months yet of the active 125(+) MLS listings less than 15 have an asking price below $1.5M and 100 have an asking price above $2M. The Snyderville Basin (out-of-town area) is only slightly better with less than 15% of its active MLS listings below its 12 month median sales price of $912,500. There are currently no homes for sale in the Greater Park City area for under $500K. Moving outside of Park City into the Heber and Kamas Valleys (10-15 minutes to the south and east) dramatically changes what can be purchased. The changes lie mostly in the price as these two valleys have over 150 current for sale homes priced for less than $1 million, but both have the same issue of relatively few homes available below their median sales prices (only about 20 % of the available inventory is priced below the median sold prices of the past 12 months).

Homes in Park City for sale over $1million

Condominiums in the Greater Park City area are experiencing a similar inventory crisis with only 30% of the active inventory having an asking price below the median sales price for the past 12 months. This number doesn’t appear as skewed as the Single Family home data for Park City, but much of that has to do with the availability of smaller units (studio and one bedroom models). Condominium pricing is still heavily weighted toward higher prices over 40% of the active condominium inventory has an asking price over $1 million.

The lack of inventory in the Greater Park City areas continues to have an impact on how quickly sales happen as nearly 35% of all sales in the past year were on the market for less than 2 weeks before being sold. We are in both a Buyers’ and Sellers’ market; higher priced homes and condominiums give the Buyers a lot of choices while Sellers in lower price categories for their neighborhood can play “hard ball”.

For assistance from REALTORS® you can trust to help you with your Park City area properties contact the YouInParkCity.com Group at KW Park City Keller Williams Real Estate: info@YouInParkCity.com (435)962-9472.

Tags: condominium sales, inventory, Park City real estate, park city real estate stats, Park City Real Estate 2016, homes for sale
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Park City Real Estate Competition by Price Point

By Todd Anderson

Sep 29, 2015

Park City Real Estate Trends