Lodging on the cheap?

Cost of real estate and housing in ski resorts is outrageous and a growing scourge before the next crash comes around the corner.

Now, there is expensive and crazy expensive, and this will be my story for the day. A few evenings ago, as my wife and I were strolling in our neighborhood we saw a “for rent” sign next to a smaller house.

The price wasn't listed but was available on Zillow.com, a real estate website. When I checked it out, I wasn't quite sure about the number I had read. It simply was more than two times the going rate!

We were quite familiar with this type of house, that wasn't quite the 2,000 sf (186 m2) advertised, but more like 1,900 sf (177 m2) and the rental asking price was then $6,950 a month (6 125 euros). It's since been reduced to $6,500 (5 730 euros) but the owner forgot to update the same amount stated in the body copy.

Zillow estimates that it should only be around $2,600 (2 290 euros), but the actual market value is more like $3,200 (2 820 euros).

The ad copy further threatens that if the owner doesn't get a taker at his price, the house will be sold. He even goes on a limb by claiming that “the home appraises at $1.2 million (1,057 million euros)” when it could sell for $900,000 (793 000 euros) at the very most.

Seems like everyone wants to follow the example of integrity set by Mr. Trump, the famous billionaire real estate mogul!