Demand For Short-Term Rentals Surges In Summit County: 'We Have A Massive Deficit'
SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - The number of short-term rentals in Summit County is outpacing residential and rental inventory at a historic pace. While affordable housing has always been a priority, the need is more critical than ever.
"Our most recent housing needs assessment, which was actually pre-COVID, showed that there's a need for an additional 2,600 rental units, again pre-COVID," said Jason Dietz, Housing Director for Summit County. "Now it's probably around 3,000 or more, as far as the gap in the next couple years for housing that is needed."
County-wide, Dietz says there are about 31,000 residential units; one-third are occupied full time by locals, another third are second homes and the last chunk? Short-term rentals.
"It's definitely a significant portion of our housing stock," said Dietz.
The town of Breckenridge heled a special council meeting this week to discuss the issue.
Breckenridge has the lion's share of short-term rentals. It's why Mayor Eric Mamula says Breck is leading the charge for solution, but it's not doing it alone. Summit County officials along with stakeholders from each town have been meeting every other week to talk about near-term solutions.
"We're looking at commercial spaces and converting that to residential. We're looking at partnerships with nonprofits such as habitat for humanity," said Dietz.
From the private sector to the school district, the county is even exploring ways to use campsites.
"Where we can provide certain areas for RVs or vans, working with the forest service or campgrounds, things like that," he said.
Mamula says the community needs short term rentals, but a longer-term project involves finding a balance.
"The second step will be trying to get people to convert their short-term rentals to long-term rentals, probably take on some kind of incentives, some kind of program, where we can help push that because there are some units in the community that probably don't pencil as well for short term rentals as people might think. Maybe they're better as long-term rentals, maybe with a little town assistance," said Mamula.
Dietz is also on board and says while an incentive program for short term rentals may take longer to implement, short term rentals are here to stay.
Dietz says the county is working with software that can determine the number, area and layout of short-term rentals which will help shape the incentive program going forward.
"Our software will also be able to see the illegal short-term rentals which we will be able to go after as well," he said.
There are workforce housing projects underway, like Alta Verde in Breckenridge and Dillon Valley Vistas, which are nearly complete, but the cost of building is growing faster than the county can keep up with.
Dietz estimates with the current need over the next few years, it would cost the county billions.
"We cannot build our way out of it, we have a massive deficit or housing gap for need especially rentals here," he said, not to mention the lack of land.
"It's sort of a losing battle right now," said Mamula. "That's why we need some other tactics to figure out a way to turn the tide and get back to a better balance because this thing is really about balance. A lot of times the conversation gets spun that we don't want short term rentals. Well, Breckenridge is a short-term rental town. We don't have many hotels. Our guests generally stay in short term rentals so they're vital to the community. The balance between the short term and the long term has to be right otherwise there's nobody to work in the businesses, so then nobody's gonna want to come to town so it's a fine line that we're trying to walk."
The ultimate goal? To make sure that balance ensures locals can continue to afford to live in Summit County as well as critical seasonal workforce.
