Mountain markets offer retreat from heat

At higher elevations, the air is thinner and so are the second-home-buying opportunities. However, in this recession, a brief window of affordability has opened for entry-level homes.

This is good news for people like me.

I live in Arizona, and out of the 20 families on my street about a quarter of them own second homes and they are all located in mountain communities, not at beaches.

I don't know everybody on my street, but of the folks I do talk to on a regular basis, one has a vacation home in Purgatory, Colo., and two have second homes in the White Mountains of Arizona, where the elevation in cabin areas stands about 7,200 feet above sea level.

This is the Sunbelt phenomenon.

The immediate, Pavlovian response when considering where to go for a regular summer vacation was always "the beach," whether that stretch of sandy earth was by an ocean or a lake. But, over the last 50 years, this country's migration patterns have been from the colder Midwest and Northeast to the warmer Sunbelt states. People are realizing if you now live in a warm weather climate, why would you want a second home at a beach? To bake in the sun? You can do that at the pool in your backyard.

For us heat denizens, mountain locales are multi-seasonal getaways. In the summer, they are good places to flee the heat and since many mountainous second-home locales, at least in the West, are located near ski resorts, it's a place to go for winter sports. Indeed, multiple generations of families often meet at winter cabins for Christmas or New Year's vacations.

Another bonus for folks like me living in the Arizona desert or those on the Florida Gold Coast: a trip to the mountains to view the fall colors is always a terrific, short vacation.

In the second-home market, the argument for a beach property was that it would always be a good investment because of the limited supply of undeveloped beach property left in the United States. Ever go shopping for a beach property? Invariably, your agent will say something to the effect, "God only built so much beachfront." I can't tell you how many times I heard some variation of that theme.

In an odd way, the same argument holds true for mountain resort properties, although at first glance this wouldn't appear to be the case.

When you arrive at your winter vacation spot and look around, what you see are deep-forested mountains stretching as far as your eyes can see. The natural beauty of the landscape probably is a hundred miles deep. Plenty of room for another development, right?

Actually, no.

Most mountain resorts areas -- even those attached to ski resorts -- are surrounded by national forests and parks, where there is no private development. In addition, strict environmental standards are usually adhered to in mountain communities to protect the land itself, conserve water, limit damage to the forest, or maintain a balance with local wildlife.

All the land that you see is mostly national forest and can't be developed. ...CONTINUED

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