Leading Minds: Inside the Advantage | Session One | Exclusive Opportunities in Investment-Driven Lifestyle Properties
Big Sky’s One & Only is about to release its first estate lots, and REALM’s own rental data shows the market still has room to run before it catches up to Aspen and Jackson. Here’s what members heard straight from the people building it.
One&Only Moonlight Basin
What’s the “ground floor” opportunity at Big Sky’s One & Only right now?
It’s a raw-land estate offering inside the One & Only Moonlight Basin footprint that hasn’t been released to buyers yet. “We do have an estate offering, so a land offering within One and Only,” said Emily Wagner of Lone Mountain Land Company, the master developer behind Big Sky’s private club communities. “We’re really excited to release those to clients later this fall.” The lots will be built out with Olson Kundig, the Seattle firm behind the resort’s architecture — floor-to-ceiling glass built into the landscape, with every window framing a sightline. This is the first One & Only in the United States and the brand’s first winter destination, connected to the mountain by its own gondola running straight into the hotel. “Who doesn’t want to start their ski day that way?” Wagner said.
“We’ve seen a lot of buyers seek this product out — one for the One & Only brand, and, as Julie mentioned, the first opportunity within the United States. We’re also the first winter destination for One & Only.”
— Emily Wagner, Leading Minds, September 2, 2026
How does Big Sky’s rental market actually compare to Aspen, Jackson, and Vail?
It’s the only one of the five still climbing. Amy, who leads REALM’s Rental Library, pulled AirDNA data across Teton Village (Jackson), Aspen, Big Sky, Vail, and Park City for the group. Big Sky’s average short-term rental currently earns just over $104,000 a year, with an average daily rate near $800 and 53% occupancy — solidly the second-strongest of the five behind Jackson. But when AirDNA scores the markets on investability, rental demand, growth, seasonality, and regulation, Big Sky essentially ties Jackson. The reason: “Big Sky, out of all these other markets, is the only market that’s really experiencing a substantial increase in the average daily rate year after year,” Amy told the group, while Aspen, Teton, Park City, and Vail are “kind of at maturity.” Big Sky also carries a more favorable regulatory environment than its peers — another factor pushing its score up.
What should buyers know before trusting a branded-residence income projection?
Ask more questions than the number on the page. “There is no data available on Airbnb or AirDNA” for branded residences, Amy explained — hotel brands don’t route that inventory through the channels AirDNA or CoStar track, and the data is proprietary even when it exists. New projects add another wrinkle: it takes roughly three years for a residence to stabilize before its rental numbers mean anything, so pre-sale projections are often just estimates dressed up as data. For a One & Only branded residence at Moonlight Basin, Amy’s own research puts nightly rates in the range of $7,400 to $9,300, or roughly $2,000 per bedroom as a rule of thumb — well above the market’s general short-term rental average, but numbers REALM members can now stress-test through the Rental Library rather than take on faith.
Between the two, Big Sky is telling buyers something most mature ski markets can’t: get in before the market prices this in. An unreleased estate collection at the country’s first One & Only, a fractional entry point at Montage starting at $1.5 million, and rental data REALM can now vet in-house rather than take secondhand — that combination is what “ground floor” means on this call.
