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...