Park City Real Estate Trends

             The Park Record Newspaper (Park City Utah's twice weekly news resource) ran an article this week stating that while construction costs should be enticing for building, builders and suppliers remain quiet.              Park City home building costs have come down recently due to a lower lumber, asphalt, steel and concrete costs. Jim Drexinger, senior vice president of sourcing for Stock Building Supply, which has a large store near Kamas that supplies local builders, said global markets are affecting many of the products they sell. Some lumber products have seen a "significant" reduction in price and some to "multi-year historic lows," he said. Additionally, the slow building market has lead to a glut of construction laborers which has lead to very favorable labor costs for those people choosing to build.             Unfortunately while costs are down (Jared Rakisits, president of the Park City Area Homebuilders Association was quoted as saying "It's probably the best time in quite a few years to build a house"), we are still dealing with a tight credit market and construction loans are not easy to obtain in Park City & Deer Valley (or most other spots in the country).             Not all home construction costs have gone down in the Park City area. A local lighting retailer noted that prices in their field have been steadily rising at five to ten percent a year. This has some Park City and Deer Valley home builders trying to cut costs and search for cheaper materials.             The lack of recent sales of vacant land in the Park City and Deer Valley are another indicator of the slow construction and building market. There are currently over 450 listings for vacant land in the greater Park City real estate area and there have been 9 sales over the past 3 months.              Local Park City and Deer Valley builder Richard Jaffa of Jaffa Group Design/Build was quoted as saying ‘While the recession may be over by next year, it will take about three years for the area's housing boom to fully recover.'             Predicting the bottom of the Park City and Deer Valley real estate market is anybody's guess, but there is no doubt that the current high inventory levels coupled with low building costs make this an opportune time to purchase and build n Park City, Utah.             As skiing film maker Warren Miller liked to say: If you don't do it now, you'll just be a year older when you do next year.