The great thing about Park City is that even when you are working you still feel like you are on vacation. Bloomberg has released The Best Places to Own a Vacation Home in the U.S. and Park City tops the list - Aspen and Jackson Hole might be the first ski spots that come to mind when considering a vacation at a luxurious mountain resort. But if you’re actually looking to buy a home and care about convenience as well as luxury, then Utah’s Summit Park region may be the best option. Summit Park -- the term for the micropolitan area -- ranked highest on Bloomberg’s Wealthiest U.S. Vacation Havens Index. The area is home to the Park City, Silver Summit and Deer Valley resorts.
Bloomberg looked for small pockets of wealth in more than 500 areas across four equally weighted metrics: vacation home stock, share of the workforce employed in real estate and recreation-related industries, home valuations and household income. The final index is comprised of 70 micropolitan statistical areas. A micropolitan statistical area includes one main urban center with a population of at least 10,000 but fewer than 50,000 people, at least one county and all designated hamlets, villages and townships.
In Summit County, the average sale price of a single-family home was close to $1.6 million in 2018, according to data from Sotheby’s International Realty. Within Summit County’s Park City limits, the average sale price was even higher at $2.7 million.
"The Park City area offers a very wide range of home options, but increasingly moderately priced housing is being displaced as home prices are bid up in prime locations," said Bill Ligety, associate broker at Summit Sotheby’s International Realty and a 40-year Park City resident.
Home prices within the Deer Valley Resort -- less than three miles from the Park City slopes -- are even more extravagant. The average sale price in Upper Deer Valley, the older and more historic portion, was $5.4 million last year. In the newer area, dubbed Deer Crest, the average was $6.5 million. The St. Regis hotel is located in this neighborhood.
Nearly 20 percent of households in Summit Park earned $200,000 in 2017, the highest of all micro areas. But that figure could be higher because a share of people who own vacation homes have a primary residence at a different location where they would report their income.
Two micro areas in Colorado -- Edwards and Breckenridge -- landed at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. Ski resorts in those areas include Vail, Breckenridge, Copper, Beaver Creek and Keystone. The micro area in and around Jackson Hole was ranked No. 4.
Looking to start a business in Utah or already have one, well The best and worst US states to start a business (by Yahoo Fianance)- ranks Utah the #2 state to start a business. Texas is the best state to start your own business and Hawaii is the worst, according to a study from WalletHub. The personal finance site analyzed data from a variety of sources — including the U.S. Department of Labor and Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau — and found that the top five states to start a business were Texas, Utah, Georgia, Montana, and Oklahoma. The bottom five were Pennsylvania, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Hawaii.
The study factored in the business environment, access to resources, and business costs as part of their findings. It also considered aspects including educated populations, total spending incentives as a percentage of GDP, and the availability of human capital. North Dakota (#7) and Utah (#2) are the top states for highest average growth in the number of small businesses and most accessible financing. Alaska (#36) is the top state for the highest availability of human capital and longest average work week (in hours). Iowa (#39) has the cheapest office spaces while West Virginia (#45) and Michigan (#15) are tied for highest total spending on incentives as a percentage of GDP.
Last month we looked at Utah being a great place for retirees, well the Most Popular Cities for Millennials to Call Home (by Realtor Magazine) is also Utah - Millennials are choosing to plant roots in Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, and Pittsburgh at higher rates than in any other of the nation’s 50 largest metro areas, according to a new report by online marketplace LendingTree, which analyzed mortgage requests from January to November. “While millennials are often stereotyped as adolescents, the reality is that this generation is well into adulthood, with most between their early 20s and mid-30s,” according to the study. “This means that many of them are actively pursuing careers, having children, and buying homes.”
In Salt Lake City, millennials made the majority of total purchase requests—51 percent—between Jan. 1 and Nov. 25 this year. In Minneapolis and Pittsburgh, the percentage was 48 percent, according to the study. On the other hand, the fewest mortgage requests from millennials during the same time period were in Tampa, Fla., Las Vegas, and Miami. Only 30 percent of purchase requests in Tampa came from millennials. Tampa represents the lowest share of millennial mortgage requests among the 50 largest metro areas analyzed.
