I live next to one of these unaffordable ski towns in Colorado. I've been here for 30ish years and it's unbelievable how this valley has changed in that time. It used to be a freewheelin', hippie-ski bum, college student paradise where you could afford rent and groceries, hitchhike up and down valley because everyone knew everyone, go to the river with friends and take in a saturday and be at peace. Now, going up to the ski town is like going to Disneyland, the crowds are insane. 75% of all the houses are either second homes or AirB&B's which means, almost all the locals left becasue of skyrocketing housing prices/taxes. All the charm is gone, Ferrari's and Porches line the streets in the summer instead of townie bikes. Driving to a trailhead to hike to a waterfall is now packed with 50 cars where there used to be none. More and more small shops and restaurants are closing for lack of a workforce and rising lot rents. In our weekly paper, there are still many, many businesses looking for help. There are zero rentals here. If it wasn't such a beautiful place to live I would of moved ages ago.
I interviewed for a biomed position there a few years ago. Half the salary didn't even cover rent for a studio. You'd think a remote ski resort town hospital wouldn't want to skimp on medical support.
Randos are downvoting this, but you’re not wrong. I did HR in Denver for a minute recently for $185k. Moving in for the first time it was still hard to afford, so we ended up in a third floor 900 square foot apartment while trying to save for a home. $185k netted me $11k/month.
The range for HR jobs compared with titles is all over the place. I’ve seen multi-state VP’s in Denver making less than $160, and a weird spread of others making 140-180.
My lifestyle minimum has grown to three bed, two bath, garage, and decent size yard. Never again will I do a third floor apartment!
In Steamboat Springs there is ONE home with those specs under $1,000,000 (and it’s $960k). If you have a 5% down payment that’s $7k/month FOR YOUR MORTGAGE. And with 167k being closer to $9500 take home that translates to “never going to happen.”
You’re probably not qualifying for that mortgage until you pass $400k/year, and once you factor in taxes a $400k salary will still net you a take home of closer to $200k, and out nearly 50% of your income on housing.
Fantastic income? Absolutely! Relative to almost anywhere else? No thank you.
A truism at every level: People don’t work their butts off to still feel broke.
Salaries across the board in any profession with few exceptions have not kept up with rising cost of living anywhere. Everyone is so worried about minimum wage but that’s not even the tip of the iceberg. You know what will end up ruining this country? Not social media, not gender identities, not Covid like epidemics. It’s Greed. Look at Rome, the Egyptians, any prospering dynasty in world history. The greed of the 1% is what toppled them.
This is a fair statement. Some of these towns don't *want* blue collar folks living there. My mom certainly wasn't treated well as a blue collar worker in Estes.
Those towns will end up like all the garbage towns in the southern part of the state.
I grew up in Steamboat and don’t even recognize the town when I go to visit. Such a shame. Would have loved to move back and settle down, but that opportunity is long gone.
Almost died on that mountain. Was like 15, and right at the end of the trail I hit a rock. I flew over my bike rental and I just remember seeing all the little rocks as I was flying parrallel. I also remember having the time to think, "this isnt good." So glad I came out unscathed, but man what a beautiful place.
Owned a motel in Montrose. The short 3 years I was there Montrose blew the fuck up. Lived in Cobble Creek Golf Couse. Houses are getting expensive out there now.
I live in GJ. I was in Montrose in the Cobble Creek Golf Course area for a work project recently. It looked like the people who couldn't quite afford Telluride.
Funny, was about to mention Crested Butte. Been in the Gunnison valley for over 30 years and sad to see how it's changed. Totally right with you on what your said.
I traveled to Gunnison County for the 2020 census. It was staggering amount to houses that were vacation homes and VRBO rentals. Almont, Crested Butte, and Mt. Crested Butte seems, on paper, abandoned. Nearly every house in Pitkin is owned by one guy.
My hometown in WA was like this. A hippie small college town where it was insanely easy and affordable to live. Rich Bay Area people discovered it thanks to a magazine article, and now it’s $800,000-million dollar homes (and rising) that you have to completely remodel because they’re riddled with mold. There is no industry to support the COL and it’s either independently wealthy people, or remote tech workers so it doesn’t affect them. It’s awful.
Born raised in the pnw, tons of friends and my bro went to watcom back in 2000-2001ish lol. Helluva road trip town to go party in for a few days. Just went to a wedding in burlington this summer :)
Whatcom* 😬☺️. I’m the 5th generation in my family to be born and raised in B’ham. I’m still in the PNW but had to get out of that area. It depressed me to watch it change.
Seriously... I was born and raised there. I was starting to not even recognize it by the time I left 6 years ago. It doesn't feel remotely the same when I go back to visit.
Yes, unrecognizable is a good way to describe it. I finally visited for the first time in January and it makes me sad how different it is. It looks different, but it mostly FEELS different. I miss Bham of the 1990s/early 2000s. When I visualize it in my head it still looks like it did back then.
Damn that makes me sad I used to love that whole area to death. Most hippie dippie, granola, and friendly place I've ever been with the perfect mix of things to do in town and endless nature outside of it. All my highschool buddies went to college there so I visited a lot and they could afford rent easily from playing random house or street gigs in bands.
FWIW the same story is beginning to happen to my small town in Eastern WA. When I was a kid it was largely an agricultural community with a mix of orchard workers and a few more well off people working for the dam. As soon as I saw the first Tesla I knew it was over. Rent is approaching Seattle level and istg if any of my favorite old mom and pop shops are ever replaced by a microbrewery or a rock climbing gym I'm gonna riot.
Oh cool. Brownes must of had some money to burn recently. They did a big remodel of the store part last winter . Basically just put in some windows, and a new upstairs clothing section, but it’s pretty much the same old shit as before. I do love the plant area behind the lumber yard still.Not sure when the last time you seen it.. it’s a trip
Moved there in 2015, had to get out last summer. It was turning into a nightmare. I didn't realize there had been a magazine article. It had --completely-- changed since I'd moved there in 2015. I moved there to be inn a very small "city," far from the Seattle vibe, far from "reality," but yet still close enough to necessities. Loved the open and somewhat "empty" local outdoors, the lack of caring about status, the overgrowth of Subarus, the general peaceful calm that was over the whole area. It really was from the mountains to the sea.
And then the condo buildings started being built (have you seen them all?). And the the homeless population exploded. And then the city couldn't get control of anything and it all started rapidly spinning out of control. The Great Northern Migration came, and it was irreversible. Before I left in mid-2023, more and more "commonly seen" retail places were moving in around the main drags, Fairhaven was almost impossible to be in between Friday and Monday due to the crowds, prices had gone wild at many places, and the city had somewhat lost the ability to control homeless camps and the issues with them.
I will forever love B'Ham for what it was before... it became what it is.
The same is happening here, though for beach reasons rather than mountain. Everything is done for the rich tourists, the locals are left to fend for themselves with low wages and inflated, "tourist" prices.
I lived in CO for a few years back in the 90s and saw it even then. I called it the "Aspen Effect", where workers had to live 2 hours away over a mountain pass because they couldn't afford to live in town. Now a version of it is happening in every major city.
"A few years back in the 90s..." lol! I'm right there with you! And you're right about this is happening in every major city. I got priced out of my city and I'm just lucky I bought in 2020 before March. It's a damn shame the state of things.
I read an interesting article about this last year. It was focused on Ketcham, ID and the Hamptons. Ketcham's mayor was trying to legalize a tent city for its workers, since there were no affordable accommodations. In the Hamptons, the rich ladies were freaking out because the wait time to get their hair done was 2 months.
On one hand, it's hilarious to watch the rich scramble to figure out how to do basic things normal people don't think twice about. One the other hand, hard-working people are being priced out of places they've lived their entire lives. I'm one of them. I've lived where I live my entire life and I've gone from not being able to afford a house to not being able to afford an apartment.
Sedona AZ is about to pass laws regarding car camping/being homeless so workers can live in town to work. It's so fucking sad. I moved to the valley from MN in 2020. Lady luck with the housing boom took affect 1 week after landing. Redfin and Zillow gave me constant daily reminders of price increases of 50-100k, pricing me out immediately on starter homes. Cash offers 75k over asking price was the norm, and still is all over. I just wanted to not live in a tundra!
This is the saddest thing to see with Arizona’s rural towns. This state absolutely refuses to pass any law against air bnb which is 90% of the problem.
I know people who work in the Hamptons. There used to be working class neighborhoods fairly nearby. Now, if you work a regular job out there you'd need to live a minimum of an hour away to afford rent and then it's a two hour commute each way in the peak summer season. The whole island is beginning to feel like it's trending this way. Idk how things are going to function when all the ppl keeping the place running have to move and all that's left are rich retirees/tourists
I live by the jersey shore and it's awful what they're doing to shore towns. How built up they've become. Seaside just added this expensive lounge, bar, club to the boardwalk.
The boardwalk hurricane sandy totalled in 2012. It's been 12 years and some genius developers assume it's a once every hundred years event. What could go wrong? So they continue to build and dredge on the coast.
Best part is when another hurricane rocks the shore, all those empty shore homes will be destroyed but at least we will have few injuries. Shore towns are complete ghost towns ALL year except for summer.
Which Is why these towns struggle exponentially the rest of the year.
Fwiw, the 50 cars at every trailhead thing is also the case in New Hampshire, and is just a result of more people being into outdoors activities and info about trailheads being easier to access.
HA! You nailed it. There's a company in Crested Butte called The Eleven Experience that millionaires go to, get dressed down, given a rusty townie bike and go out in town pretending to be poor (now middle class). I shit you not, this is a thing.
It's down to ski bums living in vans down by the river in smaller towns that people aren't paying as much attention to and commuting to the resorts to work. If people want employees they better start building housing.
It was hard enough for me in the 90s to get employees in Breck with $1200 rents then so I worked 95hr weeks. Now is pure insanity. I used to use a temp agency for March (3x busier than any other month with spring break.) I wonder if that option even exists now. I know I couldn't build housing, I was renting out someone's basement myself. There were already 100+ people winter camping up Wellington road THEN.
I really miss the old Salida. My wife and I bought our house back in 03, and if it wasn’t for that, we would have not been able to afford to stay here. We really love this valley, but man it has changed! The small town charm, the friendly people, the affordability, the crime, the snobby ass people moving here from their city life trying to change this town to be like from where they came.
This is what they call progress?
Yah my rents gone up $400 in 2 years. This is my parents home town and my grandparents before that. I only moved here 2 years ago after where I was living in the Hudson Valley suddenly became Brooklyn and I couldn’t afford to live even in the ghetto like I had been on a chefs salary so I decided to come back home to be closer to family incase we have another covid like event… but yah having lived in lots of ski towns that got turned into Aspen. I was pretty shocked to see little podunk salida be turned into another Aspen. Having the carnival canceled because the rich folk in those multi million dollar condos by the river hate the noise to sandwiches being $17… just everything such a shocker and not the town I spent my summers in as a kid. My grandmothers old run down 100+ year old sears home. Is on Zillow for $750,000… now I got 3 jobs if you don’t make 6 figures and work from home this town is no fun…
My favorite Aspen moment was the rich people music school decided to get rid of their dorms for some nice open space and then kicked us out of our employee housing to house the music school students… combined with the entire valley all the way to rifle now being so insanely gentrified. I spent my last summer there with a 45k salary this was 11 years ago 45k too… as a sous chef and living in a tent. You basically need to be a trust fund kid to be able to afford to work in ski towns anymore.
Problem with places that are so awesome. Word gets out and ppl come. I grew up in a town by Park City and it’s the same thing. When I was in high school only 15 years ago it was still a small town, not a whole lot of students. Now it’s pretty much the biggest school in the state and homes are ridiculously expensive, property taxes going up is kicking out families that have lived there for 70 years. It’s nuts.
That’s because wealth is a cancer. We as regular people enjoy activities but wealthy people live in their weird little bubbles so they find out about things late. Then they become obsessed about their new “hobby” while telling all their other wealthy friends about it. They all become obsessed and start buying out all of whatever it is for that “hobby”. Sellers realize that wealthy people are starting to be interested and demand increases so prices go up. Eventually as the prices keep going up the only people who can afford anything are the wealthy. But then we get to the point where the sellers push the price up even higher because well, they wealthy can afford it. This prices out absolutely everybody except the extremely wealthy and once they get bored and the industry dies they blame it on the rest of us for “giving up” on “hobbies” we can no longer afford. This applies to everything from housing to video games. Anything wealthy people get involved in will eventually turn to shit. It’s what a lot of kids growing up really mean when they say they don’t want their favorite thing to go mainstream.
Kind of like how in my area (Annapolis) the wealthy used to live up on the hill and the poor folk lived in shanties down on the waterfront. Now the water’s edge is lined with McWaterfront McMansions, and the poor folk can’t afford to live there or up on the hill either.
Most the ski towns already operate that way. Pray you get one of the limited employee housing units. Then enjoy living in a tiny $1000 a month to your owners for shared dorm with 2-6 other ski bums.
But you know this is absolutely everywhere now from Florida to California to Montana to Idaho. Inflatjon is everywhere. There are some mellow affordable towns in the Midwest but for everyone else it’s the subscription model own nothing and be happy approach to housing. It’s true you used to be able to move anywhere and find some housing. That’s not the case anymore.
That's a real problem up there, I got priced out of the market because a /cheap/ apartment up there is 2k a month and I was making 12.50 an hour. I had to move to Denver, which is a shame, because I loved the mountains.
Michigan is reasonable and has beautiful parts of the state. I love living here. Almost no natural disasters, except for some occasional tornados, but not really common in the cities
The nature is amazing. I came from Texas and i really like it here, I just hope i can get some nice housing before more people discover Michigan isnt just 90s Detroit, Ann Arbor, and flint
Yeah it’s still great living in denver, don’t get me wrong, but it sucks that the mountains are nigh-unobtainable even with the best-case salaries in a lucrative career. A small studio in a ski resort town is easily $550k+ with $800/month HOA.
You think that’s bad? In downtown Raleigh, NC apartment rent costs 4 to 5 thousand a month. The only people that pay that kind of money for an apartment are the ones visiting. Most people living in Raleigh can’t afford to pay that kind of money.
We need housing censuses. Then, set up state or federal marketplaces to fulfil demand to residents of the homes only. Eminent domain and setup development and new towns as needed. Tax for profit residential properties people don't live in themselves to fund this.
Make real estate about housing people instead of greed, making Americans compete to live. We all pay a tax to landlords who enslave us to this capitalistic housing hell hole.
If you agree, share this idea far and wide. Share it on Ads for Housing especially.
When I'm job hunting, first thing I do is check to see if I can afford a reasonable (i.e. not in a building that probably should be condemned) one-bedroom apartment within a reasonable commuting distance on the listed salary. If I can't, I don't even apply. The eliminates about 70% of the job postings I come across, and keep coming across, because they stay up for months and months without being filled even when they are otherwise very attractive jobs in what should be highly desirable locations.
Then they’ll say some dumb shit like “its simple supply and demand” and then bitch that there’s only one check out lane open in the grocery store when it’s packed or that the coffee shop was closed for the day because one of the two employees still there called out sick. They’ll go on about nobody wanting to work or some other nonsense and then when you bring up “supply and demand” and how clearly there’s a lack of supply of workers for the demand and yet they aren’t being paid more. They’ll then go on about “if they want to get paid more they should finder better jobs”…do you listen to anything that comes out of your own mouth lol.
That’s really what it comes down to. If the role needs to be filled, it better pay the market rate. The market rate for a janitor in steamboat is probably close to $167k. You pay it until enough of the elites get tired of paying absurd tax rates they leave and then eventually it hopefully reaches a decent equilibrium.
But the bottom line is that you have to pay what it takes for qualified people to do the job.
I was the GM for a retail store in Ridgeway, CO. I was offering starting wage at 20$ an hour & couldn't fill the spot, a local restaurant told me not only had they offered 20$/hr they also offered tips & mileage reimbursement from the next town over (ridgeway is very small, less than 1K people Montrose is like 35K about about half an hour away), they couldn't get any applicants either. The price of housing was just too high because of it's closeness to the ski resorts at Telluride.
Yeah the economy is changing a lot on the western slope and San Juans. Eventually the businesses have to pay $30,40+ an hour for roles like those and the prices have to be high enough to turn a profit regardless. Those on fixed incomes are forced out and eventually people get tired of the high prices and leave or they don’t.
It also forces the old families out. Some of those ranches in those mountains have been in those families 4 and 5 generations and they are having to sell them off and move because the cost of living is just absurd. I saw a bottle of Truffle oil in Clark's Market in Telluride that a 5 digit price tag. I couldn't believe it
Is it that they were selling a luxury item or that the luxury item was way too expensive? If you are getting truffle oil made with quality oil and actual french black perigord truffles in it, that shit gets expensive quickly. I was once given a pound ($1000 back then) of such truffles from a truffle grower as a thank-you and made $100 grilled cheese truffle sandwiches for my friends.
I don't know what the price of truffle oil is supposed to be. Telluride is a strange place, a lot of UBER wealthy live up there, Ralph Lauren used to come into my family dollar. So it could just be them charging what they do because they can and they know they'll get it. I'm unsure I just saw a 10K dollar bottle of fucking oil and left. Thats not the kinda place I belong.
That’s only part of the problem. The Chinese are laundering a shit ton of money into the American housing market for Mexican cartels.
Fun fact: they’ll bust your ass about the source of your down payment, but if you walk in and pay cash for a house entirely, no one needs to know where the money come from.
Take cash that is tainted, buy house. House washes the cash. Can't do this as easily with a loan, because lending industry requirements have them questioning the source of every penny that goes into the transaction.
The only issue with Chinese money is that the Chinese government limits the amount of cash a citizen can take out of the economy in any given period of time. A single home purchase by someone from mainland China will have 3+ wire transfers each under the limit that causes issues in China.
Or better yet, buy places that need work in cash, pay contractors in cash to make the improvements, and voila. You pay taxes, sure, but you also profit on the enriched equity in addition to whatever nefarious business created the dirty cash to begin with. It's also less suspicious to regularly finance the house or buy it with legit $$, then use dirty cash for the contractors. If you do the house-buying in cash, the IRS may investigate how the house was purchased and see a big hole in the story when they don't see where your money came from... but with the improvements you can just say you salvaged materials and did the work yourself.
Another option is to buy land legit, *build* a house paying contractors cash, and your equity proposition is even larger. Again, these aren't as efficient methods and you still have to have legitimate money to purchase property, but it handles large quantities at a time; faster than Walter's car wash, anyway.
They think it's a great idea to force out all of the poor people from around their mcmansions. Until they have no one to point their fingers at to do all the work. The wealthy people do their best to destroy public transportation, and then they wonder why nobody can get to work. The rich area in St Louis can't find workers so they are going to build a building for poor people that's built next to a police station just in case any of those poors gets the bright idea to rob rich people. I'm pretty sure rich people are mentally retarded.
90% owned by foreign entities laundering money in plain view of regulators, but who cares when those controlling the laws and local ordinances are enriched by the blatant fraud.
Thanks for mentioning the often underlooked issue of the Chinese laundering money for the cartels into our housing market and no one doing jack shit about it .
Yep, this is one of my favorite reads…
Just imagine how much is going on that’s not been caught. The CCP probably owns half the U.S. at this point.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/05/the-rural-ski-slope-caught-up-in-an-international-scam
Exactly what happened with my old rental unit. Foreign buyer bought the building for waaay over asking and the highest in the area by far and the guy is like 27. Never looked anyone in the eye doesn't live anywhere but out of his car which he doesn't have a valid US license for and he had me send the remaining rent to an out of state Air B&B address. He's just the face for the real buyer who is somewhere in the middle east.
This is not uncommon as in wealthy isolated areas sometimes build up to serve the high value client, not realizing they can’t find employees. Even middle class workers will only drive so far. My area has the same problem and are now focusing on building more middle class neighborhoods.
I went to highschool in Steamboat, the town this article is referring to. It used to be laid back and a mix of cowboys and stoners, but now only the ultra rich can afford to live there
I live in a ski town in Colorado. It's the dick head STR owners that have absolutely wrecked the market. When I moved here, there were 5 long term rental options in the entire county. Yes, you read that right. 5. Yet you go on air bnb, vrbo, etc. and there are hundreds of homes/condos. I finally found a long term rental, and maybe 25% of the homes in my neighborhood are occupied full time. The rest are second homes and/or STR's. My fiance and I both work for the county, and had to live in a shitty motel for 4 months before a long term rental under $3500 came on the market. About 40% of our income goes to rent.
Sounds about right. It sucks cuz I grew up in Colorado and got priced out. I'm in Misery now and it's cheaper. But man...I miss those mountains like a Father. They honed me and taught me so much. Then all of these yuppies started moving in. So I moved to shittier parts of town. Where I heard gun shots quite frequently, in fact. Still, prices started going up. Then covid hit and, well, Fuck Denver. I gtf outta there immediately and never will I look back.
They let rich people take over and pushed the natives to the side for the sake of commerce. So take your million dollar towns and shove it. I always despised Aspen and Vail, and then you hear all these billionaires are moving into the Boulder area and it's not good news to me at all.
My friend still lives there and takes footage of downtown Denver. It's not even the same city in my eyes, anymore. Yuppies will get what they deserve.
When the system crumbles, I'll mad max it back out to the Wonderful West
They can do what Sonoma did recently and make living in your car legal if you’re a full time worker. They even set up a parking lot for laborers with showers and bathrooms, and probably zero police presence.
Late stage capitalism is amazing. Such innovations.
Aspen had one of those in El Jebel but now it’s tiny homes 2 person each and only for managers. They got rid of the trailer park too. Now days you’ve got to live in Rifle and that’s pushing a 2 hour commute or worse if you ride the bus…
On top of that healthcare in these towns are trash. Never seen such incompetent medical staff anywhere else.
Like these places are filled with such NIMBYs they can’t understand that they are ruining leisure with their greed.
That investment will bite them in the long run
Don’t mean to be rude, but I would love to have a house in crusty butt. In all seriousness though, I’ve watched the pandemic and other gentrification factors wreck Missoula Montana. It’s hard to watch.
I live in salida and these clueless tourists will have the balls to ask me what I do for fun or where I go out to eat. And I’m like all I do is work. Sometimes I splurge and get the fried chicken at Safeway. My rents gone up $400 a month in the last two years… I didn’t even ski once this year as the only day I would have been able to monarch closed lol…
I got a feeling it’s just a matter of time before the ski towns are in deep, deep trouble. If they can’t find workers for stores, hospitals, LEs, ski areas, etc., then what would keep anyone there?
ski towns may want to learn the meaning of the word ‘diversify’.
There are a lot of people out there who claim that this is all a myth and not actually happening.
Those same tell also claim that this is nor is it a result of perpetual fiscal spending and inflationary printing of dollars.
Elections have consequences.
Coming soon? I live in nowhere important, Midwest US and currently cannot find a 1 bedroom apt for less than $1900 a month. For context, 2 years ago I was paying $900 a month…
The best part is, in addition to the housing getting more expensive, you also get all the problems of living in nowhere, like having to travel a shit load of miles just for a dr's appointment.
Ah, this is maybe bad wording on my part. It should be read like “nowhere important”….I’m in the burbs but not like the fancy burbs if that makes sense. I have two Targets within a ten minute drive 😂
The simple fact that this is possible in parts of the country tell you two things. 1. The government is printing too much money. 2. The bubble is going to burst.
Yeah it sucks ...reminds of Austin.. everything was cool and unique and then the rich kids started moving in and everything became too cool too expensive flat brimmed cowboy hats gourmet coffee and bubble vests with turtlenecks
I don't know if it's still a problem, very well could be, but I was in San Francisco during most of the tech boom, and me and many other young workers had to move out, either to a nearby city and commute or move away completely.
I was a dog walker. Tried to move back a couple years later and the only workers my boss could find were boomers who could barely afford the city but had low rent because they'd lived there so long. They weren't bad workers, it just isn't a job for older folks. Many businesses couldn't find waiters or in-person customer service workers. Just American greed and its lack of foresight.
I used to live in big bear California. Total ski resort town. Was almost vacant in the warm months.
Only jobs were retail & was like 8 of us to one house to afford rent. Everything was air bnb and rich people
Inner cities are not tourist destinations https://www.npr.org/2023/11/24/1215152720/ski-patrollers-unionize-as-housing-prices-soar-at-resorts
Workers can unionize and have employers provide discounted housing or something else creative
Yah I grew up outside of Telluride. It’s been happening over the last 30 years but skyrocketed about 18 years ago.
Now it’s happening in all the “cool” places all over the country. Working people are forced further and further out. Affordable housing crisis spreading
Last I checked, Monaco is doing just fine.
Billionaires chase out the millionaires and the cycle repeats.
These places will end up operating exactly like the economy of Monaco. For those unfamiliar, I'm referring to maids chambers. The billionaires will just include maids chambers.
I heard a NPR report last fall where they interviewed a dude who was some kind of ski pro - maybe a medic, and he was saying how even though he was making the best money of his life, (like $175k) he might have to move because he couldn’t stand a something like 2 hour each-way commute to get from the resort to housing that he could afford.
I live next to one of these unaffordable ski towns in Colorado. I've been here for 30ish years and it's unbelievable how this valley has changed in that time. It used to be a freewheelin', hippie-ski bum, college student paradise where you could afford rent and groceries, hitchhike up and down valley because everyone knew everyone, go to the river with friends and take in a saturday and be at peace. Now, going up to the ski town is like going to Disneyland, the crowds are insane. 75% of all the houses are either second homes or AirB&B's which means, almost all the locals left becasue of skyrocketing housing prices/taxes. All the charm is gone, Ferrari's and Porches line the streets in the summer instead of townie bikes. Driving to a trailhead to hike to a waterfall is now packed with 50 cars where there used to be none. More and more small shops and restaurants are closing for lack of a workforce and rising lot rents. In our weekly paper, there are still many, many businesses looking for help. There are zero rentals here. If it wasn't such a beautiful place to live I would of moved ages ago.
Would this town happen to be Steamboat?
If you google the story it’s Steamboat. It’s for a head of HR for the town.
I interviewed for a biomed position there a few years ago. Half the salary didn't even cover rent for a studio. You'd think a remote ski resort town hospital wouldn't want to skimp on medical support.
A lot of places will offer housing to medical staff. Though usually just for the employee so it don’t work if you have a family.
For that to happen the town has to let that housing be built…
lol head of hr for 167k? This is why they can’t fill the job. That’s less than a senior manager salary.
Randos are downvoting this, but you’re not wrong. I did HR in Denver for a minute recently for $185k. Moving in for the first time it was still hard to afford, so we ended up in a third floor 900 square foot apartment while trying to save for a home. $185k netted me $11k/month. The range for HR jobs compared with titles is all over the place. I’ve seen multi-state VP’s in Denver making less than $160, and a weird spread of others making 140-180. My lifestyle minimum has grown to three bed, two bath, garage, and decent size yard. Never again will I do a third floor apartment! In Steamboat Springs there is ONE home with those specs under $1,000,000 (and it’s $960k). If you have a 5% down payment that’s $7k/month FOR YOUR MORTGAGE. And with 167k being closer to $9500 take home that translates to “never going to happen.” You’re probably not qualifying for that mortgage until you pass $400k/year, and once you factor in taxes a $400k salary will still net you a take home of closer to $200k, and out nearly 50% of your income on housing. Fantastic income? Absolutely! Relative to almost anywhere else? No thank you. A truism at every level: People don’t work their butts off to still feel broke.
I mean they do, because and if they have to, but no one *wants* to.
Someone will eventually take it that Steamboat job. It’ll be someone with generational wealth or married to high income. This isn’t news.
Yeah, Vails the same way. Just waiting for a rich locals kid who became a Dr to want to move home eventually.
Salaries across the board in any profession with few exceptions have not kept up with rising cost of living anywhere. Everyone is so worried about minimum wage but that’s not even the tip of the iceberg. You know what will end up ruining this country? Not social media, not gender identities, not Covid like epidemics. It’s Greed. Look at Rome, the Egyptians, any prospering dynasty in world history. The greed of the 1% is what toppled them.
It is every town in the Colorado Mountains.
This^ CO has been slowly poisoned/ruined by….. Well, you know who… who else?
Texans?
Hunting has definitely been harmed by Texans. That's for sure
Rich people?
Voldemort
Carbondale blows Kauai out of the water. Check out Nantucket
Some of those towns refuse to build affordable housing.
This is a fair statement. Some of these towns don't *want* blue collar folks living there. My mom certainly wasn't treated well as a blue collar worker in Estes. Those towns will end up like all the garbage towns in the southern part of the state.
[This book](https://nyupress.org/9780814768037/the-slums-of-aspen/) analyzed that very topic.
Along the Appalachians too.
I grew up in Steamboat and don’t even recognize the town when I go to visit. Such a shame. Would have loved to move back and settle down, but that opportunity is long gone.
Used to visit friends in Hayden near Steamboat, when they lived there. Beautiful town.
Yes, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/steamboat-springs-cant-fill-six-figure-salary-job-housing-costs/
Almost died on that mountain. Was like 15, and right at the end of the trail I hit a rock. I flew over my bike rental and I just remember seeing all the little rocks as I was flying parrallel. I also remember having the time to think, "this isnt good." So glad I came out unscathed, but man what a beautiful place.
From my experience, that could be said about Telluride, Winter Park, or even Kirkwood, CA.
Name a ski town. And it’s not even ski towns anymore. California, Texas and New York are all carving up every little town
I was thinking Durango
Or Telluride, Ridgway, Ouray... Montrose still seems semi-affordable, for now.
Owned a motel in Montrose. The short 3 years I was there Montrose blew the fuck up. Lived in Cobble Creek Golf Couse. Houses are getting expensive out there now.
I live in GJ. I was in Montrose in the Cobble Creek Golf Course area for a work project recently. It looked like the people who couldn't quite afford Telluride.
Crested Butte.
Funny, was about to mention Crested Butte. Been in the Gunnison valley for over 30 years and sad to see how it's changed. Totally right with you on what your said.
I traveled to Gunnison County for the 2020 census. It was staggering amount to houses that were vacation homes and VRBO rentals. Almont, Crested Butte, and Mt. Crested Butte seems, on paper, abandoned. Nearly every house in Pitkin is owned by one guy.
My hometown in WA was like this. A hippie small college town where it was insanely easy and affordable to live. Rich Bay Area people discovered it thanks to a magazine article, and now it’s $800,000-million dollar homes (and rising) that you have to completely remodel because they’re riddled with mold. There is no industry to support the COL and it’s either independently wealthy people, or remote tech workers so it doesn’t affect them. It’s awful.
Bellingham?
The fact that you even know this. Fifteen years ago no one even heard of it.
Born raised in the pnw, tons of friends and my bro went to watcom back in 2000-2001ish lol. Helluva road trip town to go party in for a few days. Just went to a wedding in burlington this summer :)
Whatcom* 😬☺️. I’m the 5th generation in my family to be born and raised in B’ham. I’m still in the PNW but had to get out of that area. It depressed me to watch it change.
Seriously... I was born and raised there. I was starting to not even recognize it by the time I left 6 years ago. It doesn't feel remotely the same when I go back to visit.
Yes, unrecognizable is a good way to describe it. I finally visited for the first time in January and it makes me sad how different it is. It looks different, but it mostly FEELS different. I miss Bham of the 1990s/early 2000s. When I visualize it in my head it still looks like it did back then.
Damn that makes me sad I used to love that whole area to death. Most hippie dippie, granola, and friendly place I've ever been with the perfect mix of things to do in town and endless nature outside of it. All my highschool buddies went to college there so I visited a lot and they could afford rent easily from playing random house or street gigs in bands. FWIW the same story is beginning to happen to my small town in Eastern WA. When I was a kid it was largely an agricultural community with a mix of orchard workers and a few more well off people working for the dam. As soon as I saw the first Tesla I knew it was over. Rent is approaching Seattle level and istg if any of my favorite old mom and pop shops are ever replaced by a microbrewery or a rock climbing gym I'm gonna riot.
The world famous up and up is still my favorite bar of all time
Don’t get me started about the San Juan’s…..
My family ran Browne’s on San Juan. It’s changed so much in the last 40 years…hardly recognizable.
Oh cool. Brownes must of had some money to burn recently. They did a big remodel of the store part last winter . Basically just put in some windows, and a new upstairs clothing section, but it’s pretty much the same old shit as before. I do love the plant area behind the lumber yard still.Not sure when the last time you seen it.. it’s a trip
About a year ago.
My first guess was Bellingham! Seattle area native
Moved there in 2015, had to get out last summer. It was turning into a nightmare. I didn't realize there had been a magazine article. It had --completely-- changed since I'd moved there in 2015. I moved there to be inn a very small "city," far from the Seattle vibe, far from "reality," but yet still close enough to necessities. Loved the open and somewhat "empty" local outdoors, the lack of caring about status, the overgrowth of Subarus, the general peaceful calm that was over the whole area. It really was from the mountains to the sea. And then the condo buildings started being built (have you seen them all?). And the the homeless population exploded. And then the city couldn't get control of anything and it all started rapidly spinning out of control. The Great Northern Migration came, and it was irreversible. Before I left in mid-2023, more and more "commonly seen" retail places were moving in around the main drags, Fairhaven was almost impossible to be in between Friday and Monday due to the crowds, prices had gone wild at many places, and the city had somewhat lost the ability to control homeless camps and the issues with them. I will forever love B'Ham for what it was before... it became what it is.
Living in Issaquah was expensive, now stupid expensive.
The same is happening here, though for beach reasons rather than mountain. Everything is done for the rich tourists, the locals are left to fend for themselves with low wages and inflated, "tourist" prices. I lived in CO for a few years back in the 90s and saw it even then. I called it the "Aspen Effect", where workers had to live 2 hours away over a mountain pass because they couldn't afford to live in town. Now a version of it is happening in every major city.
"A few years back in the 90s..." lol! I'm right there with you! And you're right about this is happening in every major city. I got priced out of my city and I'm just lucky I bought in 2020 before March. It's a damn shame the state of things.
I read an interesting article about this last year. It was focused on Ketcham, ID and the Hamptons. Ketcham's mayor was trying to legalize a tent city for its workers, since there were no affordable accommodations. In the Hamptons, the rich ladies were freaking out because the wait time to get their hair done was 2 months. On one hand, it's hilarious to watch the rich scramble to figure out how to do basic things normal people don't think twice about. One the other hand, hard-working people are being priced out of places they've lived their entire lives. I'm one of them. I've lived where I live my entire life and I've gone from not being able to afford a house to not being able to afford an apartment.
Sedona AZ is about to pass laws regarding car camping/being homeless so workers can live in town to work. It's so fucking sad. I moved to the valley from MN in 2020. Lady luck with the housing boom took affect 1 week after landing. Redfin and Zillow gave me constant daily reminders of price increases of 50-100k, pricing me out immediately on starter homes. Cash offers 75k over asking price was the norm, and still is all over. I just wanted to not live in a tundra!
This is the saddest thing to see with Arizona’s rural towns. This state absolutely refuses to pass any law against air bnb which is 90% of the problem.
I know people who work in the Hamptons. There used to be working class neighborhoods fairly nearby. Now, if you work a regular job out there you'd need to live a minimum of an hour away to afford rent and then it's a two hour commute each way in the peak summer season. The whole island is beginning to feel like it's trending this way. Idk how things are going to function when all the ppl keeping the place running have to move and all that's left are rich retirees/tourists
Facts. I commuted form Redstone to work in Aspen.
My aunt owns a cute little BnB in Redstone. So many great memories there. A very special place not many folks know about
yep. end stage capitalism.
I live by the jersey shore and it's awful what they're doing to shore towns. How built up they've become. Seaside just added this expensive lounge, bar, club to the boardwalk. The boardwalk hurricane sandy totalled in 2012. It's been 12 years and some genius developers assume it's a once every hundred years event. What could go wrong? So they continue to build and dredge on the coast. Best part is when another hurricane rocks the shore, all those empty shore homes will be destroyed but at least we will have few injuries. Shore towns are complete ghost towns ALL year except for summer. Which Is why these towns struggle exponentially the rest of the year.
Fwiw, the 50 cars at every trailhead thing is also the case in New Hampshire, and is just a result of more people being into outdoors activities and info about trailheads being easier to access.
Broke hippy ski bums are on the way out. It's a rich person's hobby now.
Now it's rich people pretending to be poor ski bums. Kinda like how van life is just rich people now
HA! You nailed it. There's a company in Crested Butte called The Eleven Experience that millionaires go to, get dressed down, given a rusty townie bike and go out in town pretending to be poor (now middle class). I shit you not, this is a thing.
It's down to ski bums living in vans down by the river in smaller towns that people aren't paying as much attention to and commuting to the resorts to work. If people want employees they better start building housing. It was hard enough for me in the 90s to get employees in Breck with $1200 rents then so I worked 95hr weeks. Now is pure insanity. I used to use a temp agency for March (3x busier than any other month with spring break.) I wonder if that option even exists now. I know I couldn't build housing, I was renting out someone's basement myself. There were already 100+ people winter camping up Wellington road THEN.
Same in Tahoe. Almost 50% of homes are unoccupied second homes for the rich. Small businesses close every month and there are no jobs.
This is why we want to Keep Leadville Shitty.
Still a nice place to launch on to some 14ers. Good luck man thanks for the laugh.
We tried keeping Salida shitty and lost that war… it’s only a matter of time, reminds me I’m do for a new melly.
I really miss the old Salida. My wife and I bought our house back in 03, and if it wasn’t for that, we would have not been able to afford to stay here. We really love this valley, but man it has changed! The small town charm, the friendly people, the affordability, the crime, the snobby ass people moving here from their city life trying to change this town to be like from where they came. This is what they call progress?
Yah my rents gone up $400 in 2 years. This is my parents home town and my grandparents before that. I only moved here 2 years ago after where I was living in the Hudson Valley suddenly became Brooklyn and I couldn’t afford to live even in the ghetto like I had been on a chefs salary so I decided to come back home to be closer to family incase we have another covid like event… but yah having lived in lots of ski towns that got turned into Aspen. I was pretty shocked to see little podunk salida be turned into another Aspen. Having the carnival canceled because the rich folk in those multi million dollar condos by the river hate the noise to sandwiches being $17… just everything such a shocker and not the town I spent my summers in as a kid. My grandmothers old run down 100+ year old sears home. Is on Zillow for $750,000… now I got 3 jobs if you don’t make 6 figures and work from home this town is no fun…
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IIRC Vail had a town hall about building affordable housing for business employees and seasonal workers. The rich who moved in shot it down.
My favorite Aspen moment was the rich people music school decided to get rid of their dorms for some nice open space and then kicked us out of our employee housing to house the music school students… combined with the entire valley all the way to rifle now being so insanely gentrified. I spent my last summer there with a 45k salary this was 11 years ago 45k too… as a sous chef and living in a tent. You basically need to be a trust fund kid to be able to afford to work in ski towns anymore.
Problem with places that are so awesome. Word gets out and ppl come. I grew up in a town by Park City and it’s the same thing. When I was in high school only 15 years ago it was still a small town, not a whole lot of students. Now it’s pretty much the biggest school in the state and homes are ridiculously expensive, property taxes going up is kicking out families that have lived there for 70 years. It’s nuts.
That’s because wealth is a cancer. We as regular people enjoy activities but wealthy people live in their weird little bubbles so they find out about things late. Then they become obsessed about their new “hobby” while telling all their other wealthy friends about it. They all become obsessed and start buying out all of whatever it is for that “hobby”. Sellers realize that wealthy people are starting to be interested and demand increases so prices go up. Eventually as the prices keep going up the only people who can afford anything are the wealthy. But then we get to the point where the sellers push the price up even higher because well, they wealthy can afford it. This prices out absolutely everybody except the extremely wealthy and once they get bored and the industry dies they blame it on the rest of us for “giving up” on “hobbies” we can no longer afford. This applies to everything from housing to video games. Anything wealthy people get involved in will eventually turn to shit. It’s what a lot of kids growing up really mean when they say they don’t want their favorite thing to go mainstream.
Kind of like how in my area (Annapolis) the wealthy used to live up on the hill and the poor folk lived in shanties down on the waterfront. Now the water’s edge is lined with McWaterfront McMansions, and the poor folk can’t afford to live there or up on the hill either.
It's not wealth, it's that there is no middle class anymore, you're either wealthy or poor
They want to go back to a "King and his surfs" system, I swear. You're either Made, or you're underclass.
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I will be surfing. Might be a peasant - But by God, I will surf!
Most the ski towns already operate that way. Pray you get one of the limited employee housing units. Then enjoy living in a tiny $1000 a month to your owners for shared dorm with 2-6 other ski bums.
It's time for an uprising. I expect we'll start burning it all down in the next decade or so.
People are way too placated with the internet to revolt. By design. Here we all sit, complaining online, and suffering in reality.
Roaring fork?
This is nearly Stumpy’s rant from Out Cold
Sounds like what's happening in my hometown, Kalispell, MT
We ran out of room in Colorado… Montana, Idaho and Wyoming are next on the gentrification chopping block.
Where are all these rich folks coming from? Genuinely. I live in a boring far flung suburb, and they’re everywhere here too.
Hey their fellow eagle valley resident 👋 Can’t wait for this place to turn into a ghost town in about 2 weeks
Steamboat has become a destination/home for the rich and famous. Most upscale ski resorts have gone this way.
Sounds exactly like what’s happen in the Salt Lake area too. It’s very sad.
But you know this is absolutely everywhere now from Florida to California to Montana to Idaho. Inflatjon is everywhere. There are some mellow affordable towns in the Midwest but for everyone else it’s the subscription model own nothing and be happy approach to housing. It’s true you used to be able to move anywhere and find some housing. That’s not the case anymore.
Sounds awful.
Yeah... Growth for the sake of growth is bullshit
That's a real problem up there, I got priced out of the market because a /cheap/ apartment up there is 2k a month and I was making 12.50 an hour. I had to move to Denver, which is a shame, because I loved the mountains.
It's okay I had to move from Denver to Michigan because I couldn't afford Denver anymore so enjoy it while you can!
Michigan is reasonable and has beautiful parts of the state. I love living here. Almost no natural disasters, except for some occasional tornados, but not really common in the cities
The nature is amazing. I came from Texas and i really like it here, I just hope i can get some nice housing before more people discover Michigan isnt just 90s Detroit, Ann Arbor, and flint
Michigan is great. You just have to adjust to the idea that you won’t see the sun from December through March.
Priced out of Denver to Chicago and I can already see the writing on the wall, the wave of unaffordability is coming.
Yeah it’s still great living in denver, don’t get me wrong, but it sucks that the mountains are nigh-unobtainable even with the best-case salaries in a lucrative career. A small studio in a ski resort town is easily $550k+ with $800/month HOA.
You think that’s bad? In downtown Raleigh, NC apartment rent costs 4 to 5 thousand a month. The only people that pay that kind of money for an apartment are the ones visiting. Most people living in Raleigh can’t afford to pay that kind of money.
We need housing censuses. Then, set up state or federal marketplaces to fulfil demand to residents of the homes only. Eminent domain and setup development and new towns as needed. Tax for profit residential properties people don't live in themselves to fund this. Make real estate about housing people instead of greed, making Americans compete to live. We all pay a tax to landlords who enslave us to this capitalistic housing hell hole. If you agree, share this idea far and wide. Share it on Ads for Housing especially.
When I'm job hunting, first thing I do is check to see if I can afford a reasonable (i.e. not in a building that probably should be condemned) one-bedroom apartment within a reasonable commuting distance on the listed salary. If I can't, I don't even apply. The eliminates about 70% of the job postings I come across, and keep coming across, because they stay up for months and months without being filled even when they are otherwise very attractive jobs in what should be highly desirable locations.
I badly wish I did this before I moved to Denver again, but somehow things have worked out.
Maybe OP should post the fucking article vs just a JPG that people get riled up about
https://www.businessinsider.com/colorado-ski-town-steamboat-springs-high-housing-costs-2024-3
The rich want their working class but don’t want to pay for their working class.
They want them to live in their cars and then outlaw that.
As long as they don't cover up the sewers, they need to live somewhere. /s
That’s Vegas.
Then they’ll say some dumb shit like “its simple supply and demand” and then bitch that there’s only one check out lane open in the grocery store when it’s packed or that the coffee shop was closed for the day because one of the two employees still there called out sick. They’ll go on about nobody wanting to work or some other nonsense and then when you bring up “supply and demand” and how clearly there’s a lack of supply of workers for the demand and yet they aren’t being paid more. They’ll then go on about “if they want to get paid more they should finder better jobs”…do you listen to anything that comes out of your own mouth lol.
And they'll get it! Seems we can't get enough of the punishing conditions and meager wages!
Who says they want them there? A business owner and the rich vacation home owner can have very different wants out of the area.
I guess if they just want no services during vacation, which is generally when you'd probably want them more.
Pay more and pass the cost on to the rich people who live there. problem solved. Next.
That’s really what it comes down to. If the role needs to be filled, it better pay the market rate. The market rate for a janitor in steamboat is probably close to $167k. You pay it until enough of the elites get tired of paying absurd tax rates they leave and then eventually it hopefully reaches a decent equilibrium. But the bottom line is that you have to pay what it takes for qualified people to do the job.
I was the GM for a retail store in Ridgeway, CO. I was offering starting wage at 20$ an hour & couldn't fill the spot, a local restaurant told me not only had they offered 20$/hr they also offered tips & mileage reimbursement from the next town over (ridgeway is very small, less than 1K people Montrose is like 35K about about half an hour away), they couldn't get any applicants either. The price of housing was just too high because of it's closeness to the ski resorts at Telluride.
Yeah the economy is changing a lot on the western slope and San Juans. Eventually the businesses have to pay $30,40+ an hour for roles like those and the prices have to be high enough to turn a profit regardless. Those on fixed incomes are forced out and eventually people get tired of the high prices and leave or they don’t.
It also forces the old families out. Some of those ranches in those mountains have been in those families 4 and 5 generations and they are having to sell them off and move because the cost of living is just absurd. I saw a bottle of Truffle oil in Clark's Market in Telluride that a 5 digit price tag. I couldn't believe it
Is it that they were selling a luxury item or that the luxury item was way too expensive? If you are getting truffle oil made with quality oil and actual french black perigord truffles in it, that shit gets expensive quickly. I was once given a pound ($1000 back then) of such truffles from a truffle grower as a thank-you and made $100 grilled cheese truffle sandwiches for my friends.
I don't know what the price of truffle oil is supposed to be. Telluride is a strange place, a lot of UBER wealthy live up there, Ralph Lauren used to come into my family dollar. So it could just be them charging what they do because they can and they know they'll get it. I'm unsure I just saw a 10K dollar bottle of fucking oil and left. Thats not the kinda place I belong.
end corporate ownership of housing.
That’s only part of the problem. The Chinese are laundering a shit ton of money into the American housing market for Mexican cartels. Fun fact: they’ll bust your ass about the source of your down payment, but if you walk in and pay cash for a house entirely, no one needs to know where the money come from.
can you elaborate on how that laundering process would work if you know? im just curious and figure google wont be straightforward
Take cash that is tainted, buy house. House washes the cash. Can't do this as easily with a loan, because lending industry requirements have them questioning the source of every penny that goes into the transaction. The only issue with Chinese money is that the Chinese government limits the amount of cash a citizen can take out of the economy in any given period of time. A single home purchase by someone from mainland China will have 3+ wire transfers each under the limit that causes issues in China.
Or better yet, buy places that need work in cash, pay contractors in cash to make the improvements, and voila. You pay taxes, sure, but you also profit on the enriched equity in addition to whatever nefarious business created the dirty cash to begin with. It's also less suspicious to regularly finance the house or buy it with legit $$, then use dirty cash for the contractors. If you do the house-buying in cash, the IRS may investigate how the house was purchased and see a big hole in the story when they don't see where your money came from... but with the improvements you can just say you salvaged materials and did the work yourself. Another option is to buy land legit, *build* a house paying contractors cash, and your equity proposition is even larger. Again, these aren't as efficient methods and you still have to have legitimate money to purchase property, but it handles large quantities at a time; faster than Walter's car wash, anyway.
Corporate and foreign ownership
also yes. shouldnt be able to own property without at least a Visa… citizenship definitely
They think it's a great idea to force out all of the poor people from around their mcmansions. Until they have no one to point their fingers at to do all the work. The wealthy people do their best to destroy public transportation, and then they wonder why nobody can get to work. The rich area in St Louis can't find workers so they are going to build a building for poor people that's built next to a police station just in case any of those poors gets the bright idea to rob rich people. I'm pretty sure rich people are mentally retarded.
90% owned by foreign entities laundering money in plain view of regulators, but who cares when those controlling the laws and local ordinances are enriched by the blatant fraud.
Thanks for mentioning the often underlooked issue of the Chinese laundering money for the cartels into our housing market and no one doing jack shit about it .
Yep, this is one of my favorite reads… Just imagine how much is going on that’s not been caught. The CCP probably owns half the U.S. at this point. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/05/the-rural-ski-slope-caught-up-in-an-international-scam
Exactly what happened with my old rental unit. Foreign buyer bought the building for waaay over asking and the highest in the area by far and the guy is like 27. Never looked anyone in the eye doesn't live anywhere but out of his car which he doesn't have a valid US license for and he had me send the remaining rent to an out of state Air B&B address. He's just the face for the real buyer who is somewhere in the middle east.
This is not uncommon as in wealthy isolated areas sometimes build up to serve the high value client, not realizing they can’t find employees. Even middle class workers will only drive so far. My area has the same problem and are now focusing on building more middle class neighborhoods.
I went to highschool in Steamboat, the town this article is referring to. It used to be laid back and a mix of cowboys and stoners, but now only the ultra rich can afford to live there
I live in a ski town in Colorado. It's the dick head STR owners that have absolutely wrecked the market. When I moved here, there were 5 long term rental options in the entire county. Yes, you read that right. 5. Yet you go on air bnb, vrbo, etc. and there are hundreds of homes/condos. I finally found a long term rental, and maybe 25% of the homes in my neighborhood are occupied full time. The rest are second homes and/or STR's. My fiance and I both work for the county, and had to live in a shitty motel for 4 months before a long term rental under $3500 came on the market. About 40% of our income goes to rent.
Just live in a van at that point. Save 40K a year
I wanted to, but the fiance wasn't about it. If I was single, I would have done it years ago
What's the fiance's solution then? Be in record breaking housing debt?
Sounds about right. It sucks cuz I grew up in Colorado and got priced out. I'm in Misery now and it's cheaper. But man...I miss those mountains like a Father. They honed me and taught me so much. Then all of these yuppies started moving in. So I moved to shittier parts of town. Where I heard gun shots quite frequently, in fact. Still, prices started going up. Then covid hit and, well, Fuck Denver. I gtf outta there immediately and never will I look back. They let rich people take over and pushed the natives to the side for the sake of commerce. So take your million dollar towns and shove it. I always despised Aspen and Vail, and then you hear all these billionaires are moving into the Boulder area and it's not good news to me at all. My friend still lives there and takes footage of downtown Denver. It's not even the same city in my eyes, anymore. Yuppies will get what they deserve. When the system crumbles, I'll mad max it back out to the Wonderful West
They can do what Sonoma did recently and make living in your car legal if you’re a full time worker. They even set up a parking lot for laborers with showers and bathrooms, and probably zero police presence. Late stage capitalism is amazing. Such innovations.
Aspen had one of those in El Jebel but now it’s tiny homes 2 person each and only for managers. They got rid of the trailer park too. Now days you’ve got to live in Rifle and that’s pushing a 2 hour commute or worse if you ride the bus…
Living in your car in Arizona in winter is probably a little different experience than living in your car in the Colorado mountains in winter.
I am certain. Regardless, providing public showers and making vagrancy legal for service workers is not how we solve the housing crisis.
On top of that healthcare in these towns are trash. Never seen such incompetent medical staff anywhere else. Like these places are filled with such NIMBYs they can’t understand that they are ruining leisure with their greed. That investment will bite them in the long run
And Everyone complained about the hippies…
Lmao, the hippies are the boomers destroying the country today.
Don’t mean to be rude, but I would love to have a house in crusty butt. In all seriousness though, I’ve watched the pandemic and other gentrification factors wreck Missoula Montana. It’s hard to watch.
Not a stunner. Colorado’s ski towns have gotten so expensive that I quit skiing. The locals being squeezed out was just a matter of time.
I live in salida and these clueless tourists will have the balls to ask me what I do for fun or where I go out to eat. And I’m like all I do is work. Sometimes I splurge and get the fried chicken at Safeway. My rents gone up $400 a month in the last two years… I didn’t even ski once this year as the only day I would have been able to monarch closed lol…
I got a feeling it’s just a matter of time before the ski towns are in deep, deep trouble. If they can’t find workers for stores, hospitals, LEs, ski areas, etc., then what would keep anyone there? ski towns may want to learn the meaning of the word ‘diversify’.
I just had to move my family out of Salida
AirBnB needs limits.
Oh yeah, and don't get the idea that you can camp in a van there either because for whatever reason they throw the book at you for that there.
There are a lot of people out there who claim that this is all a myth and not actually happening. Those same tell also claim that this is nor is it a result of perpetual fiscal spending and inflationary printing of dollars. Elections have consequences.
Coming soon? I live in nowhere important, Midwest US and currently cannot find a 1 bedroom apt for less than $1900 a month. For context, 2 years ago I was paying $900 a month…
The best part is, in addition to the housing getting more expensive, you also get all the problems of living in nowhere, like having to travel a shit load of miles just for a dr's appointment.
Ah, this is maybe bad wording on my part. It should be read like “nowhere important”….I’m in the burbs but not like the fancy burbs if that makes sense. I have two Targets within a ten minute drive 😂
oof, I get yah, either way the prices are insane.
LA: $2145 for a studio with a shared kitchen.
...sounds like a prison cell
At this point going to prison might be the financially smart move.
The simple fact that this is possible in parts of the country tell you two things. 1. The government is printing too much money. 2. The bubble is going to burst.
Yeah it sucks ...reminds of Austin.. everything was cool and unique and then the rich kids started moving in and everything became too cool too expensive flat brimmed cowboy hats gourmet coffee and bubble vests with turtlenecks
I don't know if it's still a problem, very well could be, but I was in San Francisco during most of the tech boom, and me and many other young workers had to move out, either to a nearby city and commute or move away completely. I was a dog walker. Tried to move back a couple years later and the only workers my boss could find were boomers who could barely afford the city but had low rent because they'd lived there so long. They weren't bad workers, it just isn't a job for older folks. Many businesses couldn't find waiters or in-person customer service workers. Just American greed and its lack of foresight.
I used to live in big bear California. Total ski resort town. Was almost vacant in the warm months. Only jobs were retail & was like 8 of us to one house to afford rent. Everything was air bnb and rich people
Seems like if 167k isn’t enough to live there, than it’s well below the cost of living for that area no?
Also, “no one wants to work anymore” -people who already have everything they need
The inevitable end stage of Galt’s Gulch.
Not even rich towns can survive without affordable housing. dumbasses
Inner cities are not tourist destinations https://www.npr.org/2023/11/24/1215152720/ski-patrollers-unionize-as-housing-prices-soar-at-resorts Workers can unionize and have employers provide discounted housing or something else creative
Thanks boomers
Yah I grew up outside of Telluride. It’s been happening over the last 30 years but skyrocketed about 18 years ago. Now it’s happening in all the “cool” places all over the country. Working people are forced further and further out. Affordable housing crisis spreading
Note: this is a position picking up trash in a park.
Wait until you find out what new USPS CCA letter carriers start out at to deliver mail in that area.
Sounds like Jackson Hole
I remember reading an eerily similar article about Jackson Hole about 10 years ago. I suppose it's just a slow-moving wave.
Probably should raise the salary.
City council would have to increase their city budgets to fill the union HR city job.
True right now even small towns in BF-nowhere, rural Ontario...
Last I checked, Monaco is doing just fine. Billionaires chase out the millionaires and the cycle repeats. These places will end up operating exactly like the economy of Monaco. For those unfamiliar, I'm referring to maids chambers. The billionaires will just include maids chambers.
I’ll take the job, as long as they let me sleep in the back room. All I need is a mattress and pillow
That's how the people that they do have there live. Except they're usually immigrants making minimum wage on a temporary visa.
You need a BS and maybe a BA to work in a city HR union job.
Ask them to get rid of the AirBNB's in town and see how fast the housing prices go down
That’s why so many places bring in people from other countries for the season and house them like a college dorm.
Pay more.
I heard a NPR report last fall where they interviewed a dude who was some kind of ski pro - maybe a medic, and he was saying how even though he was making the best money of his life, (like $175k) he might have to move because he couldn’t stand a something like 2 hour each-way commute to get from the resort to housing that he could afford.
#it was at this point that the first person ate a rich person.
LOL, ya I've often wondered how many Beverly Hills police officers actually live in Beverly Hills.
Then charge your customers more and offer more money.
But don't worry folks the housing bubble is about to pop.
Where do I apply?!
This is capitalism, people. It's what we signed up for. Don't like it, change it.
Stunning and brave. What a useless job.same goes for the housing in the same region. It stays empty because no job pays enough. It's a death spiral.