It has been almost three years since Summit County officials declared a local housing crisis.
In 2022, home prices were soaring from the pandemic real estate boom. Rentals were disappearing with short-term rental managers gobbling up condos and apartments. Locals with full-time jobs were living in camper vans through the dead of winter. Some still are.
But that was three years ago. Today, some home prices are falling and buyers are (tentatively) buying. Is ski town housing still in crisis?
Summit County commissioner Nina Waters says the answer is not so simple.
“There is still a need for housing,” she tells Krystal 93 news director Phil Lindeman. “While there might be more units out there, it still does not mean they are affordable.”
Waters points to a pair of local studies. A study from this April looked specifically at the rental market, finding that 60% of year-round renters make less than area median income, or AMI, the Federal metric used to set affordable pricing nationwide. But just 20% of rentals are in their price range.
A 2023 housing needs assessment showed Summit is perpetually short on affordable homes. By 2028 the county needs 1,865 for-sale units and 2,214 affordable rentals. Says Waters, “in my opinion that seems like a crisis.”
Summit’s high cost of living adds a new wrinkle. The “living wage” in Summit is $59,547 for one adult with no children, according to MIT, 12% more than Colorado’s living wage. Add just one child and it jumps by nearly $18,000 for childcare alone.
“We know that the cost of living hurts,” Water says. “From large housing costs to cost of groceries or electricity, we are really focused on how to lower that cost of living.”
Then, there is the “missing middle.” This year’s rental study found rentals with three or more bedrooms are nearly nonexistent, even for those earning 20% more than AMI.
“Where people can upgrade or graduate to market rate, that is something we really need to focus one,” Waters says. “That is really going to be the hardest piece to crack because middle income housing is something that is really difficult.”
Waters believes Summit is putting money into the missing middle at Frisco’s latest affordable project, dubbed 602 Galena. The county recently promised $800,000 from its tax-fed Strong Futures Fund. Town of Frisco is committing more than $8 million in a first-ever partnership with the NHP Foundation, an East Coast nonprofit making its first foray into Colorado after building more than 8,000 affordable units in 14 other states.