This is the fourth in a six-part series for The Colorado Dream: Housing Wanted. The stories in this series are part of the KUNC podcast The Colorado Dream, airing on Fridays beginning October 6. The podcast is available for download wherever you may listen to podcasts and on .
When you stand on the banks of the Yampa River in downtown Steamboat Springs, it takes only a few seconds to understand why people are fighting so hard to live here. People floating on inner tubes scream with joy going down the river rapids as others fly fishing upstream try to land rainbow trout. Towering above them is Howelsen Hill, the oldest continuously operating ski area in North America and a gateway to dozens of hiking and biking trails.
But this mountain paradise is in such high demand, it鈥檚 been getting harder and harder to live here.
鈥淲e have people moving in, we don't have any place for them to go. And rents have gone up, and housing prices have gone up,鈥� Steamboat City Council President Robin Crossan said in July.
Johnny Garmantz, who works as a fine beverage distributor in the city, has lived in five different housing units in Steamboat over the last four winters. He said he was forced to leave two of his rental units because of rent increases or a landlord wanting to try and sell the property.
"It always just makes you uneasy," Garmantz said of the housing shuffle. "Just knowing when it's 60 days until my lease is up, do I get another year lease or do I need to start finding places? You kind of have to strategize it as a resident here, where you always have to keep your ears out and it's more about the people who you know."
The Yampa Valley Housing Authority estimated last year the city is to house the current workforce. The high prices and scarcity have left some residents sleeping on friends鈥� couches or camping in the national forest.
But as the housing crisis has persisted, the city鈥檚 leaders have also taken unprecedented steps to try and solve it. Last year, they banned new short-term rentals in most areas of the city and successfully passed a new tax on them.
Under the short-term rental ban, the town was divided into three areas. Red zones mean no new short-term rental permits in the area. Yellow zones have a cap on the number of new permits. Green zones, like the downtown corridor and base of the ski area, have no limits on short-term rentals.
It鈥檚 been a year since all of these regulations took effect, and the city is still waiting to collect data showing how much housing stock they鈥檝e created 鈥� or not. But residents say they are already feeling the impact.
Some are thrilled. Others are upset.
The Wodniks
Torey Wodnik bought her first home in Steamboat back in 2004, drawn to Steamboat by its small town charm. She imagined it would be a place where her daughters could mountain bike in the national forest and swim in hot springs in a single afternoon.
鈥淚t felt like a place where we could spend our time outside. It was the spot where our kids can play outside, play in the street, have, you know, neighbors that they can just run over to their house,鈥� Wodnik said of the home she found in the Bear Creek neighborhood near the base of the ski area.
And for many years, her neighborhood was what she envisioned. Neighbors enjoyed their wildlife "hotline" where they would call and text each other when they saw a moose. But in the summer of 2021, Torey noticed her town鈥攁nd her street鈥攚ere changing.
Rent skyrocketed. The average price of a home rose above $1 million. There was friction between the stream of tourists who flocked to Steamboat and the locals who feared the town was being loved to death at the expense of its workers.
Wodnik said a boom in vacation rentals, fueled by a travel frenzy and surge of remote working during the pandemic, was ruining the character of her neighborhood as full-time neighbors converted their homes to vacation rentals.
鈥淭here's 10 homes on this street, and three of those homes are vacation rentals,鈥� she told KUNC during a tour of the neighborhood in 2021.
Wodnik said the rotating cast of tourists kept her family up late into the night with their parties in a nearby hot tub. She was one of many residents to lobby the city council to pass the new regulations and overlay zones in 2022.
A year later, Wodnik said the results are mixed. Her neighborhood is now in the short-term rental red zone, an area of town where the city has banned new permits.
鈥淚t's been really lovely,鈥� Wodnik said of the changes. 鈥淲e have a handful of brand new full-time, year-round neighbors who are a part of our neighborhood, part of our community, living here, working here.鈥�
She said with the help of the new regulations, her neighborhood is starting to feel like a neighborhood again. Several houses that used to be short-term rentals have sold, Wodnik said, and the new owners can鈥檛 rent them out short-term anymore. Instead of telling tales of noisy tourists, she was excited in July to point to her new neighbors. Her daughters water their plants and play with their children.
鈥淭hese are all people who live in our community,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd it was great to get to know them a little bit better. We talked about dogs and we talked about different things we like to do in town. And we talked about what we do for a living. And it was just great to engage."
Wodnik's 11-year-old daughter, Sasha, also had rave reviews of the neighborhood.
鈥淏ecause of all the people,鈥� Sasha said. 鈥淚 love all the nice people."
Wodnik said fighting for the short-term rental regulations wasn鈥檛 easy. It strained her relationship with some members of the community. Some people in her neighborhood wanted to allow vacation rentals, saying it was the perfect place for them because they鈥檙e less than a mile from the base of the ski area.
But they鈥檙e not in the so-called 鈥渃ondoland,鈥� a part of the city with dense high rises and hundreds of nightly rentals.
鈥淲e can protect what we have,鈥� Wodnik said. 鈥淲e still have neighbors. We still get together and, you know, walk the dogs together. And there's still enough of us here that it's worth saving. And so I was really glad that it was saved.鈥�
The retiree
While Wodnik was fighting for short-term regulations, Ulrich Salzgeber was fighting to block them. Salzgeber, the head of the Steamboat Springs Board of Realtors, is preparing to retire soon. He estimates he could rent out his home short-term in the winter and make $40,000 to $50,000 a year doing it.
But Salzberger's rental plan died last summer after the city council put his home in the short-term rental red zone, just like Torey Wodnik's.
鈥淚t was a real shock,鈥� Salzgeber said in July. 鈥淎ll of a sudden, we have $40,000 to 50,000that we need to figure out what to do. So does it mean us going back to work? I'm 70 years old. It's time for me to sit back and relax and enjoy the fruits of my labor.鈥�
Salzgeber and his wife, Janet, have lived in Steamboat since 1973, when they moved to town to help their parents run a campground near the Yampa River. Salzgeber said the new regulations and the short-term rental tax are hurting locals by making Steamboat a less attractive place for tourists to visit and spend their money.
鈥淟ike it or not, we're a tourist destination,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e are a tourist community and we have a lot of guests. And the majority of the guests are very respectful and very enthused that they are allowed to come up here and enjoy the same lifestyle that that we can live on a daily basis in Steamboat."
He also questions why his neighborhood was put in the red zone, where new short-term rentals are banned.
鈥淭he city, they never looked at statistics,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey made these decisions just by drawing a pencil around and saying, OK, there's no, uh, no rental opportunities in these areas 鈥� without an option for us to be able to come and say, 鈥楬ey, listen, we've spoken with all our neighbors, they're OK with it.'鈥�
Salzgeber was so opposed to the short-term rental regulations, he joined an unsuccessful effort to recall some of the city council members who supported it.
鈥淏ecause I'm a true believer in property rights,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e've worked hard on our home. We've worked hard with our neighbors to become friends, and we enjoy our neighbors and we don't want to impact them negatively.鈥�
While Salzgeber tries to figure out how to replace tens of thousands of dollars of lost income, another retiree in a similar residential neighborhood less than a mile away has found much better fortunes.
The other retiree
Tom Williams saw the turmoil around short-term rentals mounting at the city hall building in 2021.
鈥淵ou could see it coming,鈥� he said of the city鈥檚 short-term rental regulations.
So, he said, he hurried to get a permit just a week before the regulations went into effect. And even though he鈥檚 now in the red zone like the Salzgebers and the Wodniks, he can legally run a short-term rental. The permit will only disappear if and when he decides to sell his property.
Meanwhile, Williams is loving his new role as a short-term rental host.
Williams' home is in a quiet neighborhood called Old Town where early residents built homes with rocks from the nearby Yampa River. His rental has received a cumulative five-star rating from guests.
鈥淲e've got heated floors in the bathrooms. We have a beer tap,鈥� he said in July as he gave a tour of the house before his next guests from Denver arrived.
Williams said he markets the place to upper-middle class vacationers.
鈥淭hey're very aware that they're in a residential neighborhood. They're all good guests,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not partiers. A lot of them in there are in their 50s or 60s. And they have young kids. I have yet to have a problem with a single guest, and I probably have had around 75 to 100 guests so far."
Williams said he tried renting the home long-term, but the tenants created issues.
鈥淲e did not get very good tenants,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e had tenants that were restaurant workers, ski bums, and had a lot of problems with them. They would leave snowmobiles. They would get off work at midnight from the restaurant, build a fire out back and party until 4 in the morning and disturb my neighbors. So we have a higher clientele of guests now than what we did when we had long-term tenants here.鈥�
Williams said his short-term rental business is also a bigger boon to the local economy. He employs a landscaper and a housekeeper. But he agrees with residents who say there should be limits on short-term rentals.
鈥淚鈥檓 always in favor of the government limiting my competition,鈥� he said with a laugh.
The farmers market
Every weekend in the summer, hundreds of tourists and locals gather together on Yampa Street downtown for the farmers market. On a busy Saturday in July, city council president Robin Crossan is hearing from residents who continue to have housing struggles. The housing crisis is persisting despite the short-term rental regulations," along with every other community 鈥� not only the state of Colorado but the country,鈥� Crossan said.
Crossan said the council had to step in and regulate short-term rentals after hearing for months that locals were being forced out of the community.
鈥淲hen you own something and you decide to make it a short-term rental instead of long-term housing for people in our community, that takes away housing options and it increases rents for everyone else that's still here because there's less to choose from,鈥� she said.
But business leaders who gathered a few tents down at the same farmers market were worried that the new short-term rental regulations, combined with the short-term rental tax, are hurting the town.
鈥淲e have seen a decline in some of our nightly rentals,鈥� Main Street Steamboat Director Lisa Popovich said. "I think, you know, a part of that is a trend across the country.鈥�
Popovich, who advocates for the interests of downtown businesses, said some nightly rentals have sat empty during some of the city鈥檚 most historically-busy weekends, when festivals and fireworks shows draw thousands to town.
鈥淚n some areas, (nightly rentals) are down as much as 20 percent,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 don't think that's unique to Steamboat, so it's hard to say, 鈥榃ell, it's as a result of the short term-rental tax.' It鈥檚 part of a trend that鈥檚 happening.鈥�
But Sarah Leonard, the CEO of the Steamboat Chamber of Commerce, thinks the new tax and regulations are partly to blame for the dip.
鈥淐onsumers are getting more savvy now, so they're looking at the bottom of their receipt when they book lodging and they're seeing it's upwards of 20% now is added to the bottom,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 don't think that we have enough data to say, 'Well, people aren't booking because of that.' But, you know, we hope we'll keep an eye on it and we'll kind of see how that affects people.鈥�
Back in the short-term rental red zone, Bear Creek resident Torey Wodnik said the short-term regulations are bringing a balance to the neighborhood. She also is looking forward to a new complaint system where the city is promising to respond more quickly to noise complaints and other issues from vacation rental guests.
But she said the new rules haven鈥檛 solved everything.
Housing remains expensive and scarce. And one of Wodnik's employees just left Steamboat last summer because of high housing costs and is working remotely from the East Coast.
鈥淓very year they were worried about, you know, the house selling or the rent going up 50 percent. So they opted to make a change,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hich is really hard for us because it was certainly better to have her in the office.鈥�
Next episode
We head to Eagle County where the lack of affordable housing is causing a full-on staffing crisis for the local school system. In 2020, the school district decided to tackle this issue by developing its own housing. Can they build their way out of the problem?
Credits
The Colorado Dream: 鈥淗ousing Wanted鈥� is a production from KUNC 暗黑爆料 and a member of the NPR Podcast Network. It鈥檚 hosted and produced by Stephanie Daniel with reporting and writing by Scott Franz. Editing by Sean Corcoran. The theme song was composed by Jason Paton. Michelle Redo sound designed and mixed the episode. Digital editing and social promotion by Jennifer Coombes, Jenn de la Fuente and Natalie Skowlund. Photos by Scott Franz. Artwork by Ashley Jefcoat and Jennifer Coombes. Music from Epidemic Sound.
Special thanks to Rae Solomon, Robyn Vincent, Robert Leja, Mike Arnold and Tammy Terwelp, KUNC鈥檚 president and CEO.
