SKI BUM TO MILLIONAIRE

Aspen and Telluride ski towns were real gold mines of opportunity in the 70′s and 80′s.  Starwood at Aspen, lot prices started at $22,000 and eventually became worth over $2 million per lot.  Houses in Aspen were as low as $125,000, eventually over $3 million per house.  When Birdman arrived in Telluride, to work on the Ski Patrol, he secured a home in a prime, sunny side neighborhood for $25,000 with nothing down, owner carry. Others, the lucky few on the ski patrol, who had listened closely to the stories about the new ski town, Telluride, in beer gulch at the famous Red Onion Saloon, secured homes as low as $10,000 per miners shack.  In the early 80′s, Birdman picked up a house across the creek from the Carradine mansion for $50,000.  This miners shack sold for $900,000.  Those days are over in ski town USA.  A ski bum working on the mountain for $5 per hour could buy a home, hold on to it as he raised children, hunted, skied, and fished in pristine trout streams,  in the prime sportsmans paradise of SouthWestern Colorado, pick up another home or lot, fix it up, rent it out, and sell his empire eventually for over a million $ in cash to Wall street bankers.  Young people who want to live the mountain life of adventure, are looking for another potential ski town, like Aspen and Telluride, they have heard the stories.   These two towns are unique, the ski trails drop right into the heart of the mining town, an easy walk to your million dollar shack.  Those days are over, the US Forest Service does not allow new ski permits on National Forest Land, and the cost of development is five times the lift production costs of the 70′s.  The Gilded Age of the ski bum turns millionaire on a raw dirt or shack investment is over. Young people have heard the stories and are looking for the next Telluride or Aspen.  There is a town, not on this continent, that is similar to Aspen in its infancy, e-mail me and I will let you know where it is.  Also, British Columbia has some towns with potential, but highly risky investments, since Fernie and Revelstoke take so much of the action, and have such spectacular powder skiing.  Ski bum to millionaire, a legendary time in the west that will be remembered.  LandMan