Following the subprime blow-up of 2007 and the mortgage crisis of 2008, many homeowners are facing a dark reality as real estate values drop sharply right along the stock market. This strong drop in real estate values has hit homeowners severely. But it has developed a buyer’s market as well for savvy people who want to capitalize on the drop in housing prices to buy a house now.

Real estate values came down as far as almost twenty percent according to one written report on the current market. Numerous sellers are losing because their homes are worth less now than they were just a year ago. Numerous homeowners are coming to grips with the fact that their home is worth considerably less now than when they bought it in the first place.

As property values have gone down, so too have new home starts. The number of foreclosed homes available has loaded the market with available homes that are affordable as banking companies and other lenders are happy to let these homes go for substantially less than what they are worth. With property values going down, many buyers spot an opportunity to get into the real estate market and go hunting for a deal.

Affordibility is key in the current real estate market. If people were sharp and had saved a large amount of money to put down as a down payment, they can probably get financing provided they have good credit. Despite the credit crisis, if you have healthy credit and can make a down payment, there are numerous possibilities to loan money.

Homeowners who are forced to sell because of dire financial straits are starting to understand that it is a buyer’s market. They also realize that they may not get their asking price, but a substantially lower amount. The current real estate market is clearly not a good time to sell your house, unless you have to because of financial trouble.

The low property values coupled with the record count of foreclosures, bad statistics for the new housing market and sluggish home sales comes down to an ugly vision for the real estate market. Still, it is providing some individuals an opportunity to buy a house at a much lower price. With real estate values so low right now, bargain hunters are sure to find something that they like, provided they can get financing and are ready to put down a large down payment.

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If you like spring/summer skiing then one of the best places on the planet for easy car access skiing is the Beartooth Pass in Red Lodge, Montana. Call MDOT at 800-226-7623 to make sure it’s open as snow even falls in June up here. This is some of the best car accessible ski terrain anywhere on the planet.

Ten miles south of Red Lodge is where the Beartooth Pass begins its climb to the sky. It offers 4,000 vertical feet of big mountain lines when it first opens (check out the photos). If you can’t ski all of the steepest stuff that the big names resorts offer then this probably isn’t the best place for you. There is a little run off the shoulder of Gardiner headwall that is fairly intermediate but that is about it.

We headed out of town to a bluebird day and marveled at our good fortune as we headed for the drop-off point. It is best to bring two vehicles so you can leave one at the bottom of Glacier Lake Road for the big ski out. When you get on Glacier about 5 miles up is a rock about the size of a small hotel; leave your car here. Orient yourself to the line you will take by looking up and getting some large scale reference points you can use in the Valley to orient yourself from above because you’ll need them later in the day.

Our day began up at the crack of 8:30 a.m. and by 9:00 a.m. we were dropping one vehicle up the Glacier Lake Road. Just before the base of the Beartooth Pass this road takes off to the right and you need to drive about 4 miles up the valley on dirt roads to get to the car drop spot. A big house-sized boulder is a dead giveaway and it pays to stop here and contemplate what route you are going to take to get down and pick out your markers if you are not a card carrying GPS user.

Our pick-up taken care of we headed off in to the heavens and the jaw dropping scenery that is the Pass. Just the car ride alone makes this whole trip worth it and the skiing is a bonus.

Between the east and west summits we check out our first conquest of the day which is called the Gardiner headwall. It is looking like good corn snow and we are psyched with anticipation of a great run. A few little slides on either flank tell us that there is a need to pay attention – ACHTUNG BABY!

Gardiner is awesome corn on our decent so we take the south (steep) side. At the end of our hike out we thumb back up to the car and begin our trek out Reefer Ridge following lunch. There are dozens of lines down to the Glacier Lake Road and there are dozens of ways to get trapped, or cliffed out only to find yourself hiking back out of that which you just skied. When you catch the right line it is pure heaven.

We actually skied to the base of Gunsight Couloir and were able to ski across the creek and right down to our car with only a couple of brief ski removals. We did kick off a big wet slide at the top of Gunsight. We always make sure we skier cut the top of everything we ski and rope the skier in that is making the cut just to be safe. You can see a copy of the photo of our line which is pretty radical for being road accessible.

We chugged back up to the west summit to retrieve our other vehicle and plunged down the 2,000 vertical feet of the Rock Creek head wall on the way back to town for good measure. We had a few cold ones waiting and we hadn’t seen anyone else all day long, except for at the Gardiner head wall and marveled at our great fortune to be living in the last, best place.

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