Garfield County is notorious for its housing challenges, and ongoing efforts of municipalities and some businesses to offset them for the benefit of their workforce. But how exactly does the county’s relationship with housing compare to other parts of the country?

In May, NBC News released its Home Buyer Index numbers from the month of April. The results were unsurprising — homes are expensive as ever, as scarce as ever and with more competition by the day. A pattern that cannot be coincidence, however, is that the top three most difficult counties in the country for homebuyers were all in Colorado. 

To make matters worse, the number one spot could be our own backyard. 

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Garfield County received a difficulty score of 89.3 out of a possible 100, almost seven points above the nationwide difficulty score of 82.4. Second place was taken by Routt County with a score of 89.0, with Mesa County claiming third at 88.7. 

“I think we all recognize that it’s a challenge, but I was surprised that Garfield County was first on the list,” said Jocelyn Kochevar, a realtor with Coldwell Banker Mason Morse in Glenwood Springs. “And it was a nationwide list, so it was a little bit … concerning.” 

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Home Buyer Index scores are based on three factors meant to measure the difficulty a potential buyer can face while trying to buy a home: cost, scarcity, competition and overall economic instability. 

Each factor is rated on a scale of 0 to 100 (with 0 meaning least difficult), and all three scores are combined to reveal an “overall” difficulty score. External factors that can impact the difficulty also include high insurance costs, the ratio of home prices to income and so on.   

The leading challenge for both Garfield and Mesa counties was competition, while Routt County’s was cost. Homes in these counties go quickly and sell for much more than average, making it difficult even for high earners to purchase homes. 

April 2024 numbers show Garfield County received a difficulty rating of 92.1 for cost, 95.9 for competition, 68.6 for scarcity and 90.1 for economic instability. 

“I think it’s probably equal parts cost and scarcity, to be honest,” Kochevar said about the challenges she sees most often. “Especially for someone who’s not established here in the valley and doesn’t have a property with a bunch of equity to sell. So for someone moving in from out of town or out of state … I think it’s both.” 

Homes in Garfield County have seen a roughly 87% increase in median list price since 2019, from around $400,000 five years ago to $747,000 today, according to NBC’s index data, though the West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition pinned the cost closer to $885,000. 

At the same time, the price of a home the average homebuyer in the region can afford has nearly halved since 2021, from roughly $700,000 to $412,000. This is largely due to the ever-increasing gap between income and inflation as salaries struggle to catch up with competition. In 2024, Garfield County’s median income is listed at $87,000 in the index, while the realistic income needed to afford a home in the area is closer to $158,000. 

More recreation, more buyers, more second homes

Even those who are fortunate enough to earn a salary over the median income still have to face the two additional barriers for homebuyers in the county: competition and scarcity. 

Index data suggests that approximately 54% of homes are off the market within the first two weeks of posting, with the median number of days on the market rounding out at 22. Nearly 19% of those homes are sold above the listing price. 

“I’ve had buyers who have made offers on a handful of properties, and every single time dealt with multiple offers,” Kochevar said. “It gets tricky in that situation because even if somebody just wants a loan to pay for a house, that makes their offer weaker compared to a cash offer. Or if they have a house to sell before they can purchase a house, that makes their offer weaker than one that doesn’t have that.” 

“Things that we considered normal, like getting a loan and needing to sell a house to buy a house, became challenges for those people,” she continued. 

While this shift in home buying can be observed in several other counties, Kochevar said that one unique factor contributing to competition in Garfield County is the ubiquity of cash buyers. 

“I think because (of) our proximity to Aspen, we’re seeing some of that trickle down the valley,” she said. “And it’s second homes. People who have quite a bit of money and can offer cash or have an investment portfolio of properties … that might be higher here than in other places.” 

One of the reasons behind the county’s growing investment interest, other than its natural beauty, is access to recreation. 

“People want to ski and people want to raft and be outside, and we have no shortage of those types of things” Kochevar said. “And people can work remotely. I mean, I am seeing people come and say, ‘Oh, we got a job, we just got hired, we’re moving here next month.” 

She predicts that around half of the homebuyers she’s seen come through the area since 2021 have at least one person in their household who works remotely for a company based outside of the county. 

Finding an available home itself isn’t necessarily the last barrier to ownership, either. Mortgage rates are above 7% for the first time since 2002, according to NBC News. 

A rare success story

Though the numbers may seem bleak, there are still current and future Garfield County residents — young and old — with success stories about purchasing their desired homes. 

Two soon-to-be Glenwood Springs residents in particular took a somewhat unique approach to locking down their new home. 

“We had put in our bid just right before a few other offers came in, and we wrote a love letter to the home sellers saying how my fiancé Garrett grew up playing soccer on the soccer fields right here,” Savannah Grant said. “Our (offer) was honestly below asking price, and I think that the love letter we wrote to them really helped us and worked in our favor.” 

Garrett Brown, 32, and Savannah Grant, 28, engaged in September, closed on their home in Glenwood Springs on June 14. The $609,000 condo is a significant upgrade from their 450 square-foot apartment, and came with some concessions to help buy down an interest rate. 

“We were just looking so far ahead in our lives,” Grant said. “We’ve been here for so long, we love it here, his family’s here. Let’s really try and be here.” 

Brown was determined to find a home near where he grew up, even if it meant commuting to Aspen for his job with Aspen Skiing Company, and his fiancé’s job with Aspen Chamber Resort Association. Grant, on the other hand, moved to Durango around 10 years ago for college “and just never left” Colorado. 

“Growing up in Glenwood and the Roaring Fork Valley, it’s a phenomenal place to grow up, but also for kind of access to the outdoors,” Brown said. “… I knew that this was ultimately a place (where) I wanted to put more finite roots down.” 

The couple had been looking for a home in the free market for the last year and a half, preceded by looking at the deed-restricted market in Aspen.  

“After probably three years of applying for places and not finding any luck in the deed-restricted market, we decided to open it up and look at the free market,” Brown said. 

Brown and Grant have been living in Aspen Skiing Company employee housing for the last four years and will be moving into their Glenwood Springs condo later this summer. Although the affordability of their current living arrangement allowed them to save up for a downpayment, purchasing the home still required some personal sacrifices. 

“We got engaged last September. We had always wanted to own within the valley,” Brown said. “We’re looking at prices of a wedding, and we’re like, ‘You know what? We could afford a down payment with that option as well. So we went the route of foregoing a big wedding to get in the game, financially speaking, in the real estate market.” 

Within a month of seeing their first unit in Glenwood and putting an offer in, they had closed the sale. For the couple, a crucial ingredient in their successful home buying experience was help from the right team. 

“The team that was around us was super supportive and really educated us in the process,” Brown said. “Our mortgage lender, I went to high school with him. Our realtor, Jocelyn Kochevar, used to be my high school teacher. So it was really nice having those familiar faces there to guide us along the process.” 

Words of advice for aspiring homebuyers

While Brown and Grant said they consider themselves incredibly lucky to have found the home that they did, Brown also said he’s known coworkers who end up resigning and moving away due to not finding housing. While factors like cost and scarcity aren’t always in our control, Kochevar shared a few things people in the valley can do to get ahead in finding a home. 

“Having conversations with a lender early on is really important, because they need to know their numbers. They need to know not only what they’re qualified for, but what payment they’re comfortable making on a monthly basis, before they even start looking at homes,” Kochevar said. 

Larger employers like school districts, hospitals and outdoor recreation companies now offer employee rental housing. While this may delay some of the housing struggles for both the employers and employees, it doesn’t always offer a stable solution. 

“What I see (in) different employers trying to help with the situation tends to be rentals, employee housing, which doesn’t actually solve the problem of homeownership here. It gives somebody somewhere to live, but once that term ends, or when they want to buy, prices are that much more expensive,” Kochevar said. “It’s kind of like a temporary Band-Aid.” 

Brown and Grant’s experience is living proof that those selling their homes play an important role in who gets to stay in the community, and who has to say goodbye. 

“We can’t make prices come down, and we want equity in our homes. I mean, it’s good for us … I just think it comes down to prioritizing,” Kochevar said. “(Like) prioritizing someone who’s going to live and work in the community over an out-of-town investor. Just, as a home seller, prioritizing that and saying, ‘That’s important to me. I care about this community. I want someone who’s going to live and work here, even if maybe their offer is a little bit less.'”