Summit Sotheby's CEO on Utah's luxury real estate boom: Deer Valley doubles terrain, buyers skew younger, wellness amenities replace theater rooms

Utah's luxury resort market, through Summit Sotheby's

Thomas Wright has run Summit Sotheby's International Realty, the Sotheby's affiliate covering Park City and Deer Valley, since 2008. Before consolidating in Utah, he helped build eight Sotheby's affiliates across five Western states, including markets in Colorado, Boise, Sun Valley, Reno, Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, Coachella Valley, and California's Central Coast. The business operates as a franchise, a model Sotheby's shifted to around 2000 after years of owning and operating its own offices in high-end markets.

Two real estate markets, not one

Wright's central argument is that the luxury and general real estate markets have effectively decoupled. While pending home sales are at historic lows in the broader market, the top of the market keeps moving. He cites a Sotheby's Luxury Outlook report putting the upper 1%'s wealth at $54 trillion, with those buyers focused less on property as an asset class and more on lifestyle, family time, and unique experiences.

Privacy is increasingly a purchase driver at the high end. Wright says wealthy clients, including professional athletes whose homes were targeted during away games, now want custom marketing strategies rather than blanket MLS exposure. Summit Sotheby's approach is to ask sellers directly how much exposure they want and what risks they're willing to accept.

“The East Village at Deer Valley doubled the terrain of Deer Valley, while Xtel Development simultaneously is building Four Seasons, Waldorf Astoria, their ski-in ski-out lots at Deer Valley... Utah has consistently been number one in business opportunity. We have a very friendly tax structure. We have the newest airport in The United States.”

Deer Valley's expansion as the key Utah pitch

Utah's clearest competitive advantage right now is terrain. The East Village at Deer Valley has doubled Deer Valley's skiable area, with Four Seasons, Waldorf Astoria ski-in/ski-out lots, a completed Grand Hyatt, and entry-level condos at Pioché Village starting around $400,000. Deer Valley is consistently ranked the top ski resort in North America, and Wright says buyers can now reach it from Salt Lake City International Airport, the newest airport in the country, without hitting a single traffic light.

Utah's broader pitch to resort shoppers weighing it against Vail, Aspen, or Jackson rests on tax friendliness, business rankings, the incoming NHL franchise, summers he describes as 80 degrees with no humidity, Blue Ribbon fly fishing on the upper Provo River, and watersports on Jordanelle Reservoir at the base of the East Village.

The Olympics returning to Utah in 2034 is a further tailwind Wright expects to drive profile and demand, much as the 2002 Winter Games first put the state on the map for many buyers.

Who's buying

Buyers are skewing younger. Wright sees buyers in their 20s and early 30s acquiring resort properties, motivated by work-life balance, easy access, and quality time with family rather than the investment thesis that drove earlier generations. He notes buyers tend to hold when the property is genuinely delivering the lifestyle they came for, but migrate to quieter markets like Sun Valley when Deer Valley and Park City feel too developed. He mentions a current client relocating from Aspen to Deer Valley, having sold through Sotheby's International Realty in Aspen and now looking to Park City.

Amenities in, theater rooms out

The amenity shift at the top of the market has moved firmly toward wellness. Red light saunas, steam rooms, cold plunges, and dedicated fitness and yoga spaces are the features buyers are requesting. Theater rooms, once the marquee luxury amenity, are being converted back into fitness rooms as streaming and large-format OLEDs have reduced the case for dedicated screening spaces.

AI imagery and marketing

Wright draws a hard line on AI-enhanced listing photography. Summit Sotheby's treats AI-generated or heavily altered images as misrepresentation, creating both ethical and legal liability. The firm uses in-house photographers, videographers, drone pilots, and certified Matterport 3D operators. Wright's framing on online listings is that buyers don't search for the perfect property, they eliminate properties that don't work, which means the first five or six photos determine whether a listing stays in consideration. Flooding listings with exterior shots before showing interiors, a common industry failure he flags explicitly, is a fast path to disqualification.

Private communities and the invitation-only trend

Wright describes a growing tier of by-invitation resort developments. Wasatch Peaks Ranch in Utah operates like the Yellowstone Club model, requiring members to be vetted and approved before they can even be considered to purchase real estate. Powder Mountain, where Summit Sotheby's was involved in sales before Reed Hastings acquired it and took it private, has since changed its master plan and largely exited the open brokerage market, though Wright says they remain cooperative when approached.