The 13,000-person city of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, is in the midst of a housing crisis so severe that the local hospital is losing applicants left and right as the real estate market soars.
The small mountain town, about a three-hour drive from Denver, cannot find a human resources chief for the city because the $167,000 salary on offer will no longer allow anyone to buy a home in the area.
The self-proclaimed cowboy ski town is best known as an area where aspiring Olympians come to train in the winter among locals, who are generally middle-income professionals.
The formerly quaint “cowboy ski town” of Steamboat Springs has become a vacation rental hotspot, where the average price of a single-family home has risen to $1.8 million since 2020.
The ski town was previously known primarily as an area where aspiring Olympians come to train in the winter among locals, who are generally middle-income professionals.
That reputation was in stark contrast to other, more glamorous ski towns such as Vail, Aspen, Jackson Hole and Sun Valley.
But that reputation no longer matches the reality of the city, where a doctor willing to donate more than $1 million for a home is repeatedly outbid by out-of-town buyers who bid with big cash and an inflated price. submit asking price.
According to a NBC reportthe town’s local ski resort has rented a hotel for its employees to live in, because the homes they once could rent are now largely marketed as expensive short-term rentals for visitors.
Loryn Duke, director of communications for the Steamboat ski resort, told the outlet, “Homes used to be for employees and hotels were for guests. Now houses are for guests and hotels are for employee housing. We have a lot of great employees who are early in their careers or have young families, but they just can’t put down those roots.”
“I know it’s so hard for people outside of the mountain or resort communities to even keep their heads down, but housing has gone through the roof to the point where unless you’re extremely wealthy it’s unfeasible,” says Margaret Bowes , the executive director of the Colorado Association of Ski Towns.
Steamboat, along with other mountain towns and formerly scenic travel destinations in the American Southwest, have been hit by the pandemic-induced real estate boom.
Remote workers, short-term rental investors, and second home buyers have swooped in and caused home prices to essentially double, with no sign of them coming down anytime soon.
In Steamboat, local officials are trying to ease the pressure by proposing to build thousands of new homes on a 534-acre ranch that the city’s housing authority bought with an anonymous $24 million donation.
The office wants to build more than 2,200 units in phases. Sales and rentals of the properties would be limited to those who live locally on a full-time basis and meet certain income requirements.
Even residents who oppose the project, believing it is too large-scale for a city with limited infrastructure, understand that the housing problem is real.
Steamboat, as well as other mountain towns and formerly scenic travel destinations in the American Southwest, have been hit by the pandemic-induced real estate boom
Remote workers, short-term rental investors, and second home buyers have swooped in and caused home prices to essentially double, with no sign of them coming down anytime soon
Since 2020, single-family home prices in Steamboat have increased 80 percent to an average of $1.8 million. For existing homeowners, property taxes have skyrocketed, an average of 86 percent.
These numbers put even owning a starter home out of reach for anyone making less than $200,000 annually, and even for that level of income earners, home prices make taking high-paying jobs in the region unattractive.
A local real estate agent for the past two decades told NBC, “We’re seeing across all segments of the market that even well-paid professionals are turning down jobs because they spend some time looking at housing costs and they can’t do that. It.
“The people who come here pay a million dollars for an entry-level home – a complete entry-level home that’s 50 years old.”
The president of the local hospital, Soniya Fidler, said that “no income earner is immune” from the crazy housing prices.
“I think there’s probably someone every week that comes back and tells me we lost someone because of housing,” she said.
Nearly a 3-hour drive from Denver, Steamboat is a small mountain town known for its authentic atmosphere and breathtaking natural beauty
The town’s local ski resort has rented a hotel for its employees to live in, because the homes they once could rent are now largely marketed as expensive short-term rentals for visitors.
To stem the hemorrhaging workforce and possibly attract professionals to fill positions, some of which have been open for two years, the hospital has entered the housing industry.
To stem the hemorrhaging workforce and possibly attract professionals to fill positions, some of which have been open for two years, the hospital has turned to the housing market.
The facility is currently building 42 apartments that will be rented at rates no higher than approximately 30 percent of the respective hospital employee’s income.
“It’s hard because we’re here to deliver health care, we’re not here to deliver housing. When we have the dollars to spend, it’s usually about state-of-the-art equipment and upgrading our facilities,” Fidler said.
‘But we don’t want to have to close the services, especially because we can’t have staff for that.’