Fifty Thousand people descend on our town of about 20,000 each year for the Sundance Film Festival. For ten days, our small town is transformed into one giant film festival and everything revolves around it. Even the public school schedules are altered because of the traffic patterns.
While the media showcases the celebrities at film premiers or walking down our historic Main Street, the truth is that these folks represent just a small fraction of those 50,000 visitors. My guess is that many of these visitors are:
- Worker bees associated with the movies
- Worker bees associated with the Sundance Film Festival
- Volunteers associated with the Sundance Film Festival
- Visitors who are fans of independent film
- Visitors who want to “stargaze”, crash parties and are generally Festival “hangers-on”
My point is that none of the above are visiting Park City because of its amazing mountain lifestyle or to ski. Which means that every room is booked with people who have come to visit a film festival. The amazing location helps draw people, but it is secondary to the Festival. These visitors are generally not likely to invest in property.
Of the minority of Festival attendees who are familiar with our town and interested in looking at property while they are here, it’s almost impossible to find a condominium or home that is not rented to a Festival attendee. Since demand is high and rental rates skyrocket during the 10 days of the Sundance Film Festival, it is very difficult to find properties available to show and to navigate through the traffic and parking restrictions.
Which brings me back to my point. If you are a potential buyer or seller of Park City real estate, the Sundance Film Festival is not the ideal time to find the right buyer or property. When would be a good time? The Sundance Film Festival ends on January 31st. There will be a lull between February 1st and President’s Week, which starts on February 13th. The last week of February, after President’s Week and before “spring break” season is another great time to look around.
In the meantime, let me know if I can help with your property needs! I can set you up with a market snapshot so you can keep track of what’s going on in the Park City neighborhoods of interest to you.