Worswick, Two points, on the West Coast recovery from the real estate crash took longer. Telluride is a remote place of limited appeal.
I keep in my consciousness a metric regarding the real estate crash of 1989. Seems my wife and I defined the demographic peak of that market by signing a Purchase Agreement in May of that year, closing early in July. It wasn't until maybe last year that we saw local real estate values equal to and maybe just passing our price. And this is for a typical California tract house with lots of comparables.
Telluride has some inhibiting characteristics. Firstly, at a little over 9000 MSL its one of the highest commercial airports in US, its also one of the most exciting fields, the runaway ending abruptly at the edge of the mesa. My wife an acrophobic would use other more colorful adjectives to describe this aspect. In either case there are significant weather related impacts which reduce accessibility. Access being done by smallish commercial "cigar tube" carriers, again exciting planes for the enthusiast, maybe not so for the people who think flying means two jet engines on each wing. The other aspect of Telluride is its bimodal approach to skiing challenge. On the "hotel" side of the ski area, the hill is yawningly gentle with the possible exception of Chair 6 and perhaps the outback which one must hike to, if the patrol gates are open. The North side of this Jekyl/Hyde hill is a mogul maniac's mecca, with the steepest gnarliest bumps I've ever seen let alone skied. Heck they even have bumps in the tightest of the trees! One out of the way run, West Drain results in night sweats and flashbacks ala war memories, for the successful. If one is not truly expert, one is at peril in there. Do not go. This is complimented by many other supersteep bumps, Spiralstairs and YouCan'tMake'Em come to mind. Their concept of a Blue run is Double Black most everywhere else. So it appeals to either the wusses or the jocks, not much middle ground. In short its truly a mecca for those that like riding the edge, it will never challenge Summit County on the volume side and perhaps that will limit the economics of local real estate development. Of course the surrounding Uncompahgre Range of mountains are, well truly incomparable. |
