Beaver Creek

Where it sits

Beaver Creek climbs the south side of the Eagle River valley above the town of Avon, about ten miles west of Vail, in unincorporated Eagle County. A gatehouse at the bottom of Village Road marks the entrance. The resort opened in December 1980 and has hosted World Cup downhill racing on its Birds of Prey course for decades.

Three villages, one mountain

• Beaver Creek Village is the original base: a pedestrian plaza around a year-round ice rink, with hotels, shops, the Vilar Performing Arts Center below the rink and covered escalators up to the lifts.
• Bachelor Gulch, to the west, is quieter and more residential, built around timber-and-stone lodges and large single-family homes with direct ski access.
• Arrowhead, farther west still and entered from Edwards, has its own gate, a golf course and a lift that connects back across the mountain.

Lifts and trails link all three, so it is possible to ski from one village to the next.

What the housing looks like

In the village core, most ownership is condominium: ski-in, ski-out residences and fractional residence clubs with front desks and on-site management. Above the village, roads such as Holden, Borders and Strawberry Park hold single-family homes on wooded lots, many with ski access. Bachelor Gulch and Arrowhead add townhomes and estate homes. Nearly all of it was built to design guidelines that favor heavy timber, stone and steep roofs.

How ownership actually works

This is the part most buyers underestimate, and the part Amy knows best. A property in Beaver Creek typically answers to several bodies at once:

• Your building or neighborhood association, which maintains the structure, the common areas and often the snowmelt, pools and shuttle.
• A master association and resort company, which fund village operations, transportation, events and design review.
• A metropolitan district, a local government that provides services such as roads and water and levies its own property tax.

Each has its own budget, rules and assessments. Resort-area purchases also commonly carry a transfer assessment collected at closing. None of this is a reason not to buy. It is a reason to read everything, and to work with someone who knows what a healthy reserve fund looks like for a building with heated walkways and aging elevators.

Questions worth asking

• What do the dues include, and what is billed separately?
• When was the last reserve study, and is the association funding to it?
• Are any special assessments pending or under discussion in the minutes?
• What are the rental rules for this specific building?
• What would the design review board require for the changes you have in mind?

Amy’s guide to reading an HOA walks through where to find each answer.