PARK CITY — While talking about a new report that lists Park City among the hottest spots in the country for second-home investments, a local associate real-estate broker borrowed the famous lyrics of Buster Poindexter to describe the resort town's current market conditions.
"It's what they call 'Hot! Hot! Hot!' right now," said Marc Coulam of the Coldwell Banker Park City office.
How hot, you ask?
So hot, apparently, you might get burned if you wait to buy that vacation property.
It might get even hotter now that Park City has been listed second among the Top 10 hot places to invest in a second home, according to reputed online listing service EscapeHomes.com.
Asheville, N.C., home of the famous Biltmore Estate, ranks No. 1. The list includes a wide variety of resorts, ranging from beach communities in the South to ski towns in the West to the shores of Lake Michigan.
The rankings also reveal that Utah has another vacation property hot spot — St. George. The booming Washington County city is included on the list of Top 10 emerging second-home markets.
Factors in the rankings include: accessibility to burgeoning urban centers, recreational opportunities, weather, commercial investment and the all-important "it" factor.
The world-renowned Sundance Film Festival and the 2002 Winter Olympics were key to Park City's high "it" score. City Manager Tom Bakaly credits those two events for helping the old mining town get "discovered by the movers and shakers."
But he also mentioned that the city, the county and the Chamber of Commerce/Visitors Bureau make concentrated efforts to attract both tourists and potential property purchasers.
About two-thirds of Park City properties are of the second-home variety, like time-shares and rentable condos.
The high rating certainly doesn't surprise Coulam. The 9/11 and Olympic real-estate slumps — caused by a glut of available properties and lack of buyers — appear to be over, he said. Rare multiple offers now are being made for some homes and condominiums, while other home-away-from-home properties are only lasting one day on the market. Though appreciation isn't as high as it was a few years ago, prices have jumped 5 to 7 percent just this year, he added.
Park City is an attractive real estate option and destination, Coulam said, because of its convenience. For starters, it's only 45 minutes away from Salt Lake City International Airport.
An even bigger bonus, he said, is that within a 10-minute range "phenomenal golf courses, world-class skiing, hiking, boating, fly-fishing and just about everything you can imagine doing recreation-wise" are within a 10-minute range.
E-MAIL: jody@desnews.com