The free LandBriefing section scores 10 mountain resort and gateway markets, including four towns at the base of Vail-owned mountains, on momentum, catalysts, workforce housing, and land scarcity. A companion data feature, The Gateway Index, will follow the towns around Vail’s smaller mountains on Danski and Build.
LOS ANGELES, September, 2026. Real estate developer and investor Daniel Kaufman, founder of Kaufman & Company and DEK Builds, today launched Mountain Watch, a free section of the LandBriefing land opportunity watchlist at landbriefing.com/mountain-watch that scores land and housing fundamentals in mountain resort and gateway towns. Kaufman also announced The Gateway Index, a recurring data feature coming to his ski industry publication, Danski and Build (danskiandbuild.com).
The launch comes as Oasis Management, which holds roughly 6.5% of Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN), has filed a Schedule 13D and nominated four director candidates, including Olympic gold medalist Picabo Street and former Disney CEO Robert Chapek. In its filing, Oasis said it may explore or propose a review or sale of the company or some of its 42 resorts.
“Whatever you think of the politics, the question underneath this fight is a land and housing question,” said Kaufman. “If Vail ends up shedding non-core mountains, what happens to the towns built around them? The mountain does not stop being a mountain. The operator just stops wanting to run it. Somebody still has to build for the people who run the lifts, staff the hotels, and work the shops.”
Vail Resorts reported 14.8 million skier visits across its ski areas in the 2025/26 season, down from 16.9 million the prior season, the steepest year-over-year decline in the company’s history, and early sales of Epic Pass products for 2026/27 declined about 10%.
Mountain Watch scores each market from 0 to 100 on four weighted factors: momentum (30%), catalyst (25%), housing opportunity (25%), and supply constraint (20%). Each market is also broken out across six asset classes: affordable and workforce housing, market rate, luxury, land, commercial, and hospitality. Every figure is dated and sourced to Census permit data, Zillow, Redfin, local MLS reports, and municipal and housing authority records. Access is free and requires no sign-in.
The launch set covers 10 markets: Park City, Jackson, Steamboat Springs, Breckenridge, Telluride, Big Sky, Mammoth Lakes, Truckee, Stowe, and Ketchum. Four sit at the base of mountains Vail Resorts owns today:
Park City, UT (Park City Mountain): Score 87, Buy Window
Breckenridge, CO (Breckenridge): Score 79, Selective / Steady
Truckee, CA (Northstar): Score 75, Selective / Steady
Stowe, VT (Stowe): Score 72, Selective / Steady
Park City posts the highest score in the set. Land sales there rose 46% in units and 74% in dollar volume year over year in Q2 2026, and the Kimball Junction reinvestment zone approved in April 2026 includes 500 deed-restricted workforce units. In Stowe, the Selectboard voted 5 to 0 in July to cap short-term rentals at 850, down from about 1,450, with long-term rental vacancy near zero.
“Boards say a lot of things during a proxy fight that never turn into a transaction,” said Kaufman. “But distressed and non-core mountain assets do not wait for certainty to trade. Operators, lenders, and landowners around these towns are already positioning. Mountain Watch is built to help people find the market before everyone is looking at the same three parcels.”
The Gateway Index will publish on Danski and Build alongside The Dan Report, following the towns around Vail’s smaller and regional mountains, including Gunnison and Crested Butte, Colorado; Stowe, Ludlow, Dover and Wilmington, Vermont; Bartlett, Jackson and Newbury, New Hampshire; and Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands. It will track land absorption, permit activity, the workforce housing gap, and price per buildable acre in each town.
No sale of any Vail resort has been announced, and neither Mountain Watch nor The Gateway Index is a prediction that any specific transaction will occur.
About Daniel Kaufman: Daniel Kaufman is the founder and CEO of Kaufman & Company, a private investment and holding firm spanning real estate development, venture investment, and infrastructure. He founded DEK Builds, headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyoming, to acquire ski resorts, distressed mountain assets, and ski real estate across North America. His work focuses on workforce housing and employer-anchored development in mountain resort communities. LandBriefing is built and maintained by Kaufman Real Estate & Consulting, a Kaufman & Company practice.
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