Colorado Town Fills Workforce Housing Need With ‘Dorm-Style’ Housing

Median rent in Steamboat Springs is $4,000 per month.

1 minute read

March 28, 2024, 10:00 AM PDT

By Diana Ionescu @aworkoffiction


Aerial view of mountain town of Steamboat Springs, Colorado in the winter with snow at dusk.

Jacob / Adobe Stock

With the median home price at $2 million and median rent at $4,000 per month, Steamboat Springs, Colorado is struggling to fill city staff positions, reports Megan Cerullo for CBS News. “Steamboat Springs city manager Gary Suiter told CBS MoneyWatch that the city government has struggled to recruit a human resources director, a management-level position with a six-figure salary to match, NBC first reported.”

The situation is similar to other resort towns, where an influx of new residents drove up housing costs during the pandemic, pushing out longtime residents and low-wage workers. “Home prices in the country's 20 biggest metro areas went up an average of 6.7% in 2023, according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller data. Across the nation as a whole, housing prices rose more than 5% over the last year, pushing home ownership out of reach even for high-income earners.”

In Steamboat Springs, the city is building ‘dormitory-style housing’ to accommodate hundreds of city workers, revealing the scale of the crisis.

Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in CBS News

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