One of the questions I get most often from buyers is some version of: when should we come up and look? Spring? Fall? Before ski season? After?

My answer is always the same. Come when the right house is on the market. The season does not matter as much as people think, and it matters less every year.

How Vail Used to Work

When I started in this business, Vail was heavily seasonal. Not just for tourism, but for real estate. Buyers and sellers both treated fall as the primary window. Sellers wanted to get their properties listed before ski season. Buyers wanted to close in time to be settled for the winter. That predictable rhythm shaped the whole market.

It made some sense at the time. The town itself was heavily weighted toward winter. About 80% of Vail's sales tax revenue used to come in during ski season. Summers were quiet. Spring and fall were essentially dead.

How Vail Works Now

That balance has shifted significantly. Since the early 2000s, the town has invested deliberately in building a summer economy: events, cultural programming, outdoor activities. The New York Philharmonic performs here in the summer. The mountain biking is world-class. There are no mosquitoes, no humidity, and shade actually cools you off.

The cliche you hear from long-timers is: you move here for the winter, but you stay because of the summers. There is real truth in that. Vail is now roughly a 60/40 split between winter and summer revenue. That is a fundamental change from where we were 20 years ago.

And as the town has become more of a year-round destination, so has the real estate market. Sales happen in every month now. The buyers coming up from Denver and the Front Range have figured out that spring and early summer are actually great times to visit, because rental properties are not occupied and they can see more in a single trip. I will often do a video walkthrough with a client before they make the drive, so we can screen properties efficiently and only make the trip when it is worth it.

What I Tell Every Buyer

Here is the honest version of my advice. These are vacation homes. They are not a need. They are an investment in becoming part of this community, and the decision to buy should be driven by finding the right place, not by timing the calendar.

When the right house comes on the market at your price point, that is when you move. If you miss it waiting for a better season, it will not wait for you. Inventory in Vail is genuinely thin right now. Properties that are priced correctly and in good condition are moving quickly, regardless of the time of year.

Once you own here and the right property for you comes up later, there is no problem selling what you have and moving into it. The market is liquid enough for that. But getting into the community, getting to know the town, building those relationships, all of that starts the day you close. The sooner the better, in my view.

Mark Gordon is a broker with Christiania Realty in Vail, Colorado. Explore current listings at vailcoluxuryhomes.com or connect on LinkedIn.