quote:

Currently, 11 percent of Breckenridge’s housing stock is resident-occupied, but its goal is 35 percent.

I keep re-reading this. Does this mean that 89% of Breck housing is rental or vacation homes? If so, that statistic is staggering. Even if the bulk of rentals are going to seasonal workers (for example, folks who work at the ski resorts/restaurants), the cost is still high enough that these places, I'm guessing, become little more than dorm rooms and crash pads.

I’m not surprised. The rapid shift to working remotely was accelerated by COVID, and people want to live in recreational areas like ski resorts. There are going to be major dislocation problems. It would be more of a surprise if there weren’t.

The bigger question is where you house the people who hold service jobs. In New York or Chicago, it’s the outlying suburbs or the cheaper neighborhoods. Those don’t exist in mountain towns, and there’s no mass transit. Plus, in a ski town, commuting from a distance may be impossible in bad weather.

I’m wondering when the folks who moved to these places will decide they no longer want to stay because all the restaurants and stores closed due to lack of workers.

Exactly

Breckenridge is 13 miles away. I vacationed there a number of times before moving to a nearby part of the county.
After a few years I only went there in May and September when parking was not so hard to find. The symphonic orchestra was not very good.
After a man I know gave the conductor some tips the National Repertory Orchestra improved a lot.
Now I only go there to see the dentist. A neighbor told me people were moving from Breck to where I live to get away from the madness.
No doubt a similar situation will occur here in time. Service workers are screaming about rental costs. Keystone added a lot of employee housing.
A friend in Aspen closed his upscale restaurant years ago. Workers were hard to find and had to bus in from an hour or more away.
"In Aspen, the billionaires have crowded out the millionaires"