Housing crisis hits ski resort towns as Telluride draws down millions in municipal bonds

The reason for last week’s sale is immediately apparent by typing “Homes for Sale Telluride Colorado” in an Internet browser. The websites that appear show that anyone wanting to buy a house there will need millions of dollars, maybe tens of millions.

So Telluride is “prioritizing” the acquisition and construction of affordable rental housing. Last week, Telluride School District R-1 borrowed $31.8 million, half of which will be used to pay for 25 units of “workforce housing.”

The wealthy ski area has tapped the bond market for similar reasons several times in recent years. Just last month the town borrowed $9 million, a portion of which is being used to pay to refurbish affordable housing at an apartment building. In 2022, the town council approved spending more than $27 million for a project containing another 27 units of affordable housing. Five years earlier, the school district borrowed $2.5 million for more of the same.  

“If there are no homes, I can’t fill positions,” Christine Reich, director of finance and nutrition for the school district, said in a telephone interview.

Reich’s words are echoed by local officials in vacation areas nationwide. Towns heavy on quaintness and charm but light on housing supply have squeezed out locals, both ordinary and essential purpose workers, from shop help to police, firefighters and teachers.

Last year, the island of Nantucket off Cape Cod and the town of Wellfleet on the Cape each sold bonds for so-called workforce housing. Another Colorado ski town, Vail, did so in 2021. And it’s not just vacation towns borrowing money to build affordable housing. Some colleges and universities, too, have sold bonds to pay for faculty housing, such as the University of Vermont and Middlebury College.

Income Gap

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