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Living the Life: GOLF HOMES |
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Golf. . . at Home!
A home on a golf course is more than a house, it's a lifestyle. For so many reasons beyond the love of the little white ball, golf course-based communities are attracting second home buyers, active baby boomers and even young families, and more than half of them have never played the game. Today's home buyers are looking for green open space and low density, for recreational facilities on-site and in the surrounding region; for a feeling of security and an "up market" feeling of exclusivity. According to a recent study (Golf Research Group), the average price of a fairway home in the United States has jumped 54 percent in the last five years.
Californians who moved to the new Tamarack Resort in central Idaho, Jeri and Rob Walz said, "We moved to Tamarack for the... golf course, but more importantly, for a change of lifestyle. In the summer we hike the trails and take our friends out kayaking on Lake Cascade."
A whopping six private Jack Nicklaus Design courses are a major attraction at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Arizona, along with six clubhouses, and a world-famous director of golf instruction, Jim Flick. Add to that the hard, clay and grass courts at a tennis center called "Wimbledon of the West", and a master plan created by Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Taliesin Associated Architects, and Desert Mountain investors get a leg up in property values.
At the Club at Spanish Peaks, a new 3,500-acre, development in Montana's Gallatin River Valley, residents ski out their door and hop onto private ski lifts to access the slopes at Big Sky Ski Resort, for the delights of 400 inches of annual snowfall. Between Bozeman and Yellowstone National Park, Spanish Peaks also offers spa and fitness venues, an equestrian center, fly-fishing and a Tom Weiskopf signature golf course ringed by the Absaroka and Beartooth mountain ranges.
Big-name course architects are sexy draws, adding tangible real estate value. Nicklaus courses are most favored by homebuyers, nationwide, with Tom Fazio a close second. Switchbacking through aspen groves at 7,000 feet in elevation above Vail Valley in Colorado, Fazio- and Greg Norman-designed courses at the private Red Sky Golf Club are open to membership by home owners at Red Sky Ranch; access is also made available to guests of Vail Resorts' family of lodges and hotels.
Top 5 architects whose names up the value of golf communities:
- Jack Nicklaus
- Tom Fazio
- Tom Weiskopf
- Robert Trent Jones, Jr.
- Gary Player
Aside from single family homes and condos, a new type of vacation golf home is emerging in great style onto the worldwide real estate market—the resort hotel condominium. Advantages are luxury, personal service and the amenities of a resort, from full-service spas to restaurants, and such extras as child care, private jets, yacht marinas, equestrian facilities, concierges, and best of all, privileged access to golf courses, clubhouses and golf academies.
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