Aspen’s city council this week stopped issuing not just short-term rental permits, but permits for all home construction as the city struggles with a critical lack of affordable housing and the increasing use of homes by vacationers. A moratorium, passed unanimously by emergency ordinance Wednesday night after two meetings in two days, goes beyond suspending […]
real estate
Posted inBusiness, News, Outsider
Zillow spent big in Colorado’s Front Range this summer, months before collapse of home-flipping business
The collapse of Zillow Offers — the online real estate giant’s venture into buying and selling homes — announced Nov. 2 can be traced, in one small part, to its over eagerness to invest in Colorado’s red-hot real estate market. The company bought hundreds of homes in the Front Range this summer, mostly in August […]
Posted inBusiness, Growth, Housing, News, Outsider
As record-setting real estate sales continue in Colorado resort towns, buyers are now looking way down valley
The blistering pace of real estate sales is continuing in Colorado’s high country, with every resort community setting new records in each month this year. “It’s been crazy,” Crested Butte broker Frank Konsella said, “way past everything in 2019 and 2020.” Last year saw record numbers of home buyers paying highest-ever prices for properties in […]
Posted inColoradans, Environment, News, Outdoors
An abandoned coal mine near Aspen has become a mountain biking park for the masses
Gary Tennenbaum remembers the first time he first spoke with the new owners of a long-dormant coal mine up the Crystal River Valley, near Redstone. It was a few years ago and the owners, grandsons of Walmart founder Sam Walton, offered a plan unlike any other to the longtime director of Pitkin County Open Space […]
Posted inNews
5 big tax bills Colorado lawmakers passed this year that will affect your wallet
Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights keeps lawmakers from raising taxes without voter approval. But it still allows for some changes to the state tax code without going to the ballot. Democrats and some Republicans in the legislature this year significantly altered property tax rates, tax loopholes and tax credits that will affect the wallets of […]
Posted inBusiness, Housing, News, Newsletters, Outdoors, Outsider
Here are some of the radical ideas to help alleviate Colorado’s high-country housing crisis
Jill Voyles knew the first year would not be easy. But it would be worth it for her and husband, Brendan McClarney, to move their three daughters to Crested Butte from St. Louis, Missouri. Then right after they arrived last spring, everything shut down. McClarney’s job as a construction project manager evaporated. So did Voyles’ […]
Posted inHousing, News
Residents of Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood sue to stop legal homeless site from opening in church parking lot
Some residents in the Denver neighborhood of Park Hill are suing a nonprofit, a church and its pastor, and the city of Denver in an effort to prevent a legal homeless encampment from opening. The complaint filed Thursday in Denver District Court argues the site poses a danger to children, does not meet city requirements […]
Posted inHousing, News
Extended-stay motels quietly fill the gaps in Gunnison’s chronic housing shortage
By Nick Bowlin, for The Colorado Trust Drivers entering Gunnison from the east will pass a number of motels off to the side of Highway 50, which runs down into town from Monarch Pass on the Continental Divide. Many travelers seeking adventure in the Rockies—or carrying on to Utah—pass this way. The next substantial town […]
Posted inCartoons, Opinion
Drew Litton: At these Colorado prices, we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore
More cartoons from The Colorado Sun.
Posted inBusiness, Growth, News, Outdoors
Mark Walter, who owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, is buying up Crested Butte’s downtown buildings
Billionaire investor Mark Walter, the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is staking a claim in Gunnison County. A lot of claims, actually. The Chicago financier this year has quietly acquired six high-profile commercial properties, including the Almont Resort and several iconic buildings in downtown Crested Butte that are home to restaurants, bars and shops. […]