Two and three years ago, Spokane Realtor Ron McIntire had to shovel out front doors in order to show houses.

At the time, McIntire says, about four in 10 houses on the market were vacant, and many listing agents didn't keep the sidewalks clear. Consequently, on weekends during those unrelenting winters, he would pile into a truck with his teenage son, a snowblower, and a shovel to show properties, paying his son $5 a house for his snow-removal services. At the time, he notes, buyers were almost as hard to come by as sunshine.

What a difference a mild winter makes.

McIntire, a principal in Choice Realty LLC, says he personally had 11 pending homes sales as of Feb. 13, up from three pending deals at the same time last year. He says that's a high level of activity in a housing market where the average real estate agent had three completed transactions last year.

"There are a lot of other factors," such as low mortgage rates and a low housing affordability index, he says, "but the weather being mild has been a real blessing for the real estate market."

He adds, jokingly, "If this is global warming, I say bring it on."

While heavy snowstorms still are possible for the next month or so, a mild winter that has brought only one significant snowfall has improved conditions for some industries. Even some of those who rely on snowfall for business success say this mild winter is shaping up to be, at worst, a slightly below-average season.

Grant Forsyth, economics professor at Eastern Washington University, says there aren't any broad, proven economic benefits to one extreme of weather compared with another.

However, he notes that municipalities that provide snow removal services typically get a little breathing room in their budgets when they don't have to spend all of their snow-removal budgets. Long term, they also benefit by having less wear and tear on heavy equipment.

For the private sector, Forsyth says, the workforce is less effective in extended periods of harsh weather.

"For a lot of businesses, it affects labor productivity," he says. "Employees are either coming in late or not coming in at all. A positive benefit (of mild weather) is you have fewer lost work days."

For the commercial construction, contractors that have projects in the works have been able to keep their crews going without weather-related work stoppages, says Kate McCaslin, president and CEO of the Spokane Valley-based Inland Pacific chapter of Associated Builders & Contractors. This is somewhat unusual, McCaslin says, since construction workers typically plan to be without work for a couple of months during the winter.

"It's been a welcome respite after a couple of difficult winters," she says.

Good weather isn't a catalyst for additional projects, however, and any enthusiasm is tempered by the fact that unemployment in the construction industry is about double the overall unemployment rate. At its worst in recent years, McCaslin says, one in four construction professionals nationally were without work. That national figure has come down to 16 percent currently, but she says she suspects construction unemployment locally is higher than that.

Even so, the industry could be stabilizing, she says.

"Some of our contractors are starting to have a backlog," McCaslin says. "At least they aren't freefalling."

At Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park, the ski runs have been open since Thanksgiving—something not all ski areas in the Northwest can say, according to Mt. Spokane general manager Brad McQuarrie. He says the number of skier visits is down somewhat from an average year, but a strong January and an anticipated good spring could bring the mountain up to the average seasonal volume of 75,000 to 80,000 skier visits. That still, though, would be well below the 90,000 skier visits Mt. Spokane recorded last year.

After opening Thanksgiving weekend, Mt. Spokane suffered through a slow December, McQuarrie says. The mountain had snow, he says, but the weather in town was so good that a lot of people were involved in other activities.

"It's nice, decent weather, and you're still competing with the golf courses," McQuarrie says.

He adds, however, "Other hills didn't open through December. All in all, it could have been a lot worse."

Spokane-based Avista Corp. keeps a watchful eye on snowpack, because of its effect on hydroelectric power generation. For the first quarter of 2011, for example, the company reported better-than-projected earnings partly because more precipitation allowed it to generate more power at its hydroelectric dams.

As of Feb. 13, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Resources Conservation Service were reporting snowpack at 81 percent of normal in the area affecting the Spokane River drainage. In the Clark Fork River area, snowpacks were closer to normal, in the low 90th percentile.

Avista spokeswoman Anna Scarlett says that level of snowpack isn't of concern for the power company. It would only be a problem if the below-average snowpack was coupled with an extended period with no precipitation.

"It's pretty much business as usual," Scarlett says.