Mammoth Lakes Real Estate Trends

Mammoth Mountain ski area officially closed for the season on Memorial Day weekend.  After a below average snowfall year, this marks one of the earliest closings in several years.  The much anticipated flood of properties hitting the market in the early to late Spring, just haven’t materialized (yet).  This poses an interesting outlook for the micro resort real estate market, which the resort town of Mammoth Lakes represents.  Although many Mammoth Lakes condo owners rely on a good snow year to attract tourism and the subsequent rental income it provides, it appears as though many may have weathered the storm, or lack of storms.

Mammoth Lakes Real Estate Trends show that properties are trickling onto the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), but at a very slow rate, and at significantly higher prices than recent sales comps would support.  If our supply continues to remain somewhat low heading into the busy summer selling season of mid-July through September, and demand is steady, the Mammoth real estate market could see property values stabilize.  This is one possibility.

However, those of us who follow what is going on behind the scenes realize that there is a glut of distressed properties that haven’t yet surfaced.  There are countless properties in Mammoth Lakes that are in default, but the foreclosure process has clearly slowed.  It’s hard to anticipate what type of government bail-out scenarios or incentives for homeowners who are upside down or under water on their properties, will take place over the next few months.  It is my opinion that simultaneously flushing out all distressed properties sooner, rather than later, and letting the market finally correct and recover would allow for a healthy rebound to take place in the real estate market.  Prolonging the inevitable is only creating a longer and more painful recovery.

What’s interesting is that the most commonly asked question over the past few years: “Are we close to the bottom yet?” seems to be asked less and less.  Perhaps the new question is: “What am I waiting for?”  Although it’s nice to pick an investment at the bottom, and sell it for a profit, that is difficult to do.  While the rate of decline in property values has significantly decreased, for many, we have gotten “close enough” to the bottom that any further downside risk seems insignificant when weighing the lifestyle benefits of buying sooner rather than later.

For those that love to come to Mammoth Lakes in the summer, this should be an excellent and long summer season with beautiful weather to enjoy the backcountry, mountain-biking, golf, fishing, tennis, and all of the wonderful activities that the Eastern Sierra has to offer for a good solid 3+ months.

Please feel free to navigate the website and search for current and up-do-date Mammoth Mountain Homes for Sale and other helpful information.  Contact us for the most current Mammoth Real Estate Market Trends.

Verena Robinson, Broker/Owner
CA BRE License #01512209
Mammoth Lakes Resort Realty
tel. (760) 924-8521
verena@mammothlakesresortrealty.com