Vacation Home Sales Drop Hits Vermont Economy

Vermont's statewide economy has been hurt by the drop in housing sales. According to Jeff Carr, president of Economic & Policy Resources Inc. in Williston, vacation homes in particular is the leading edge of the downturn. Burlington Free Press quotes him saying the gross state product, the total value of Vermont's goods and services for 2007, will show an inflation-adjusted decline of 0.3 percent from last year. Housing construction tumbled 53 percent through August.

Vermont Vacation Club Bites Dust For Now

The Haystack Club, a private corporation that bought a 400-acre property for $5 million from Mount Snow, VT in 2005, has folded, at least temporarily . There just aren't the number of tourists visiting because of the unseasonably warm weather, David Dillon, president, told the Brattleboro Reformer. "That means fewer people from Boston and New York with a lot of money to join the exclusive resort are here to take tours and look over plans for luxury mountainside homes and condominiums, the paper reported.

Intrawest Sale: Good or Bad for Second Homes?

Do you own any property at an Intrawest resort? Should you be concerned that a private equity firm, Fortress Investment, is in the process of acquiring the currently-public company? I think it's too early to judge. IDR was up for sale for months. But JMP Security's respected analyst Will Marks has downgraded his firm's rating of the stock from "strong buy" to "market perform." The resort giant has a piece of 10 mountain resorts including Whistler in British Columbia (an upcoming Olympic venue), Tremblant in Quebec, Copper Mountain and Winter Park in Colorado and Stratton in Vermont. It's building the new Snowmass Village near Aspen and has real estate projects in Las Vegas and Orlando.

The announced sale is a victory for a leading activist shareholder, Pirate Capital, which got its wish for a spike in the stock price. Fortress has valued its offer at $35 a share, a 32 percent premium over the recent stock price.

Wanted: Killington Development Partner

A branch of Centex, the big home builder, will not partner up with Killington, the Vermont ski resort, on a new village. With resorts in several states including California and Florida, Centex Destination Properties came aboard one year ago as the partner Killington and S.P. Land needed to revive plans to build 1400 units in a new ski village, according to an article in the Rutland Herald. At the time of last year's announcement, a spokesman indicated that the company's involvement was in the kicking-the-tires phase."

Categories: Vermont, Killington