We're saved. A Republican Congress was just seated and already Mitch McConnell has engineered stock market records and improving job numbers. What's more, to keep the ball rolling, he promises to defund the EPA, liberate coal, roll back Obama Care and approve the Keystone XL Pipeline. Thank you double M. The Majority Leader also aims to immortalize the Bush tax cuts and preserve extra special tax breaks like the 15% rate on carried interest for hedge fund gazillionaires. Hourly workers rejoice. It's the Second Coming of Trickle Down Economics. Sure your incomes dropped last year while CEO's compensation ballooned to 350 times their average employee's take home pay, but buck up, unpack those umbrellas. A deluge of wealth is coming from the top that will lift all boats. Saved at last, saved at last, hallelujah, we're saved at last.
And none too soon. Sales of Mammoth real estate sputtered a bit in 2014. 244 condos changed hands last year, down 28% from the previous year's 339. Home sales slipped 8%, from 88 to 81 units sold. Disappointing but hardly a rout. Median prices in both categories rose; 13.5% for condos and 5.5% for homes. And plenty of cash was on hand. 44.5% of condo transactions did not involve financing—up from 30% in 2013—while around 40% of homes sold for cash in both 2013 and 2014.
The Christmas holidays provided another bright spot. An informal poll of local businesses showed that traffic over the period was up from last year. Lower gasoline prices and extensive snow making may have contributed to the uptick, but natural snowfall had something to do with it as well. Dry as it's been, the Mountain still received 76.5 inches of snow through December versus just 45 inches last year. That's 74% of normal. To be sure a pattern change needs to occur and fairly soon, but it's too early to write off the season just yet.
