Park City Real Estate Investment Guide For 2026

In every other guide in this series, the investment thesis depends primarily on market demand: will tenants want to rent this property, and at what rate. In Park City, demand for short-term lodging is essentially not in question, the entire Wasatch Back resort corridor has enormous visitor demand. The question that determines whether an investment thesis is viable is purely legal and contractual: is this specific property, in this specific building, in this specific zoning designation, legally permitted to operate as a nightly rental, and does the HOA’s governing documents allow it.

This is different from market risk (will demand exist) and is instead permission risk (am I allowed to capture that demand). A property in a residential zone, or in a building whose HOA restricts rentals to 30-day minimums, may be a perfectly good long-term residential property but cannot generate the STR revenue that justifies its price as an investment. The guide’s repeated emphasis on verifying zoning and HOA rules before any offer reflects that this single factor can be the difference between an investment thesis that works and one that does not, regardless of how strong overall visitor demand is in Park City generally.

Sundance revenue is real and significant, but it should be treated as a bonus within a sound base-case underwriting, not as the foundation of the investment thesis:

• The opportunity: Sundance week generates nightly rates 3 to 5 times normal peak ski season rates, often with full-week minimum stays. For a property that might rent for $400-$600/night in regular ski season, Sundance week could generate $1,200-$3,000/night for 7 consecutive nights, representing $8,400-$21,000 in a single week.
• The proportion: The guide notes Sundance week can represent 8 to 15 percent of an entire year’s STR revenue for well-positioned properties (primarily Old Town and properties near festival venues). This is meaningful but should be understood as roughly one to two weeks of outsized revenue within a 52-week year, not the determining factor in an annual revenue model.
• The risk: Sundance’s location has been the subject of periodic reconsideration by festival organizers over the years, with other cities periodically expressing interest in hosting. While Park City has hosted Sundance for decades and the relationship is deeply established, an investor whose underwriting depends heavily on Sundance week revenue should monitor festival location announcements as part of ongoing market awareness, particularly for properties where Sundance represents an outsized proportion of annual revenue.
• Underwriting approach: Build your base-case revenue model on regular winter season, summer season, and shoulder season performance for the specific property type and location. Then add Sundance week as additional upside. If the investment only works assuming Sundance-level revenue for multiple weeks per year, the underwriting is unrealistic.

The Deer Valley East Village expansion is the largest current development project affecting the Park City real estate market and represents the closest thing to a “ground floor” opportunity in this otherwise mature market:

• What it is: An expansion of Deer Valley Resort’s terrain and base area infrastructure into new territory east of the existing resort, including new ski runs, lifts, and associated real estate development (residential, hospitality, and commercial).
• Why it matters: Major resort expansions of this scale are infrequent. Investors who purchase real estate in or near a resort’s expansion area before the expansion is fully built out and operational have historically captured significant appreciation as the expansion matures and the new area becomes established. This is analogous to early investment in a resort base area before it became a recognized destination.
• The risk: Development-stage real estate carries timeline uncertainty (construction delays, phasing changes) and the new area’s eventual character and amenity level is not yet fully realized. Pre-construction or early-phase purchases require patience and tolerance for uncertainty that established Old Town or existing Deer Valley properties do not carry.
• How to evaluate: Research the current development timeline and phasing directly with Deer Valley Resort and Park City Municipal planning department. Understand which phase any specific opportunity falls within, and what infrastructure (lifts, base facilities) is already operational versus planned. The closer a specific property is to already-operational infrastructure, the lower the execution risk, though also potentially the lower the ground-floor pricing advantage.

This comparison was previously framed from the Cottonwood Heights side; here is the Park City perspective on the same question:

• Different business entirely: A Cottonwood Heights investment is a long-term residential rental business with a tenant who lives in the property and pays monthly rent. A Park City investment is an STR hospitality business with guests who stay for days and pay nightly rates, requiring active or professionally-managed operations, furnishing, turnover management, and dynamic pricing.
• Entry capital: Park City’s entry prices are roughly 3 to 5 times Cottonwood Heights’ entry prices for comparable unit sizes, and total cash required (given higher down payment percentages) can be 6 to 10 times higher.
• Revenue ceiling: A Cottonwood Heights property’s revenue ceiling is bounded by long-term rental market rents, perhaps $3,000-$4,500/month for a premium property. A Park City property’s revenue ceiling during peak periods (Sundance, holiday weeks) can exceed that in a single week for premium properties, though averaged across the year the gross yields are roughly comparable.
• Personal use value: Many Park City owners value the ability to use the property themselves during off-peak periods, combining investment with a genuine vacation home. This personal-use dimension does not apply to Cottonwood Heights long-term rental properties (occupied by tenants year-round).
• Recommendation: Investors should choose based on which business model they want to operate, not simply which location has “better” ski access. Cottonwood Heights for a long-term rental business with lower capital requirements and lower operational complexity. Park City for an STR hospitality business with higher capital requirements, higher operational complexity, and the option of personal use, at Utah’s highest entry prices.

Utah’s property tax structure has a meaningful feature that affects Park City investment property economics differently than the metro markets in this series:

• Primary residence exemption: Utah provides a property tax reduction for primary residences (the property must be the owner’s primary residence to qualify). Second homes and investment properties, which describes the vast majority of Park City real estate, do not qualify for this reduction and are taxed at the full assessed rate.
• What this means in practice: Property tax bills for Park City second homes and investment properties are higher, as a percentage of assessed value, than they would be for an equivalent owner-occupied primary residence elsewhere in Utah. The cost analysis section’s property tax figures reflect this non-primary-residence rate.
• Assessment values in a high-appreciation market: Given Park City’s strong historical appreciation, property tax assessments have generally trended upward over time, and investors should factor potential reassessment increases into long-term holding cost projections, not just the tax bill at time of purchase.
• Action item: When evaluating any specific Park City property, request the current property tax bill and confirm it reflects the non-primary-residence rate (if the current owner has been claiming a primary residence exemption that would not transfer to an investor-buyer, the actual ongoing tax bill for an investment property owner could be higher than the seller’s current bill suggests). This is a detail that is easy to miss and can meaningfully affect the cost analysis.