Pretty much all of the popular ski resorts.
Colorado is home to several popular ski towns:
- Breckenridge
- Vail
- Aspen
- Telluride
- others…
These towns/cities/resorts are world-famous for their views, luxury, and of course, ski slopes.
They started to attract tourists in the 1960s for the burgeoning sport of skiing. They rose in popularity over the years until eventually almost all of the cities’ industries catered towards tourism.
That’s not bad, right? Tourists come, and there are lots of businesses to serve them. Right?
Eventually the wealthy, like Hollywood stars and business elites, decided to purchase vacation homes there. Why mix with the rabble when you can have your own home there, near the slopes?
This led to housing shortages as non-residents were buying up homes, which remained vacant most of the year. So more homes and condos were built. But demand outstripped supply, so home prices shot up. In most cases way up.
Property taxes also rose, because they’re based on a home’s worth. And now, many residents of these towns are getting priced out of their homes. Many of these people have lived in these towns for decades, but are being priced out of their own homes because of an insane rise in property values. Some of these people have nothing to do with tourism, and just lived in the towns because of that’s where they grew up or just liked the natural scenery. But now they’re being forced out because of insanely high property taxes.
And many of the people who work in tourism have incredible difficulty finding affordable housing. Housing they need so they can work at the resorts!
I get the attraction; these towns are scenic and the skiing is world-class. But now the people who made the towns what they are are being forced out.