Aspen Ranked the Most Expensive Ski Town in the World

Aspen, Colorado, topped the list for the fourth year in a row as the most expensive ski resort in the world, with prime homes in the affluent enclave having an average asking price of around $3,900 per square foot, according to Savills 19th annual ski report. 

Of the 10 highest-priced prime ski resorts, Aspen is the only North American ski location, said the U.K. property firm, which defined prime as homes asking €750,000 or more. 

“While many other markets across the United States have slowed due to high interest rates, prices in the Aspen market do not seem to have reached a ceiling, increasing by 9.3% from 2023 values,” wrote head of Savills Ski, Jeremy Rollason, in the report.

The second and third spots are Courchevel and Val d’Isère, both in France, followed by a handful of other European ski hubs. 

Aspen also retained its six-year top spot in Savill’s ultra-prime category, defined as homes in the top 5% of each market, with average asking prices reaching roughly $8,300 per square foot. When converted to euros, this comes out to double the price per square foot of the next highest-asking location, Courchevel. Another U.S. spot, Vail, Colorado, appeared as the fourth most expensive location in this ultra-luxury category. 

Globally, ski-resort prices have continued to ride the “stratospheric price growth” spurred during the pandemic, which saw exceptional increases in 2022 following the lifting of travel restrictions, according to the report. While prime ski-property prices are 2% lower than their 2022 highs, on average they remain 36% above pre-pandemic levels.

“Although the overall trend is up, there are many variations to this–for example, asking prices in Courchevel 1850 were up by 30%, but down in Vail by a similar amount,” Rollason wrote. 

Apart from higher interest rates, North America’s ski-resort market has been hurt by lower resilience to climate change as well as the El Nino-induced warmer temperatures last winter. 

This year, Breuil-Cervinia in Italy stole the top spot from Aspen in a separate ranking of market resilience, in which climate concerns are weighed. Aspen dropped to fourth on that index. 

The index “illustrates how the unpredictability of snowfall, temperatures and season length causes significant annual variations,” wrote Rollason. Operators “increasingly have to be prepared for unpredictable weather.” 

Altitude is the most significant contributing resilience factor, with higher locations favored over lower ones. 

Two areas in France, Tignes and Val Thorens, known for their reliable winters and snow cover, jumped more than 10 spots in the index from last year’s ranking.  

According to the report, meteorologists are forecasting a La Niña winter this coming season, which typically brings colder temperatures.

By: Sabrina Lee I Mansion Global I November 15, 2024