Is It Better To Rent Or Buy In Summit County Colorado?
The Summit County real estate market is a crazy place. Buyers are paying way over the asking price, waving inspections, and offering cash to try to get their hands on a piece of this beautiful mountain range.
The access to premiere skiing, hiking, and mountain biking while also being only an hour from Denver has created a high demand for housing up here. However, the mountains aren’t the easiest place to build, and therefore the inventory is low.
The mountains aren’t the most accessible place to live either. Having a home in the mountains is very different than a home in the city. Summit County is a fantastic place to live, though, and if you are just moving here, you may be thinking, is it better to rent or buy in summit county?
Why Rent in Summit County?
When Katlyn and I moved to Summit County, we were forced to rent. Unfortunately, we aren’t in the same tax bracket as a homeowner in this county. As of this article, an average single-family home in Summit County is around $2,100,000. Unfortunately, our impromptu Covid move to the mountains didn’t come with a half-million-dollar down payment.
So we tried our luck with the small rental market. We searched for weeks for an apartment that would accommodate a dog and then searched for a few more weeks to find a place that would accommodate a pit bull. That left us with two options, and one was a studio apartment(so really, there was only one option). The rental market in Summit county is not dog friendly as most HOAs do not allow dogs to renters.
We had to rent sight unseen as we didn’t have time to fly out and take a tour. Our neighbor called us on zoom to let us take a look. It was hard to tell what we were looking at on a zoom call. Long story short, we rented it, and when we arrived, we were in for a bit of a surprise. The walls had holes in them, the outlet covers were missing, the paint was chipped, there were staples in the wall, the washing machine was disgusting, and the pantry door fell off when I first opened it.
Katlyn nearly had a panic attack, and after we took a few breathes, we headed to lowes. We spent the next few days fixing up the place and making it our own. Overall the place is very nice now. Our rent is expensive, though, and we must purchase our drinking water—Mountain living.
Why rent in Summit?
Like with all apartments, things break, but in extreme weather conditions, things break more often. Since we’ve lived here, the deck has been replaced, the washer/dryer was replaced, we’ve had some birds get into the walls, and water issues. Oh yeah, and there was a wildfire that came within one mile of our place, and we were on pre-evacuation for a week. So we had all our valuables packed and couldn’t go further than an hour from our home for that entire week, just in case pre-evac became an actual evacuation.
In addition, subcontractors, electricians, and plumbers are few and far between in Summit County. If something breaks and you happen to find someone that doesn’t have a full schedule, you will be paying the mountain premium on labor.
Renting allows you to stress less when the extreme weather is destroying your deck, or a wildfire is moving towards your home.
The downside of renting in summit county?
The main downsides of renting in summit county are the same as renting elsewhere. First, your landlord can increase your rent. In summit county. if, for example, your washer/dryer breaks, it can take longer to get new appliances at this altitude.
Your rent doesn’t gain you equity in a market that is appreciating at an unprecedented rate. You don’t have control over improvements, repairs, or anything else in your home. You cannot guarantee your landlord won’t sell to a wealthy investor who wants to tear it down and build a new luxury home or condos.
Why buy in summit county?
I’m not even sure it is necessary for me to write anything in this section, the below image shows the appreciation year from 2021 to 2022 in the county, and it is staggering. You don’t see gains like this anywhere else besides a casino.
Why buy in Summit County? Unmatched appreciation. Since the I-70 tunnel opened in 1979, there has been consistent appreciation, with the slight exception of the recession in 2008. During the worst economic decline in the past 90 years, there was only a 15% decrease in property values, and two years later, it was back to appreciation as usual.
The Downside of buying in Summit County, Colorado
The only downside I can think of buying in Summit County is the ever-changing short-term rental laws(LINK). Currently, the most common time of short-term rental license, which the county calls type two, allows for no more than 135 rented nights per year. Summit County is a predominantly second home and investment property market, and I don’t believe there will ever be a true or indefinite ban on short-term rentals.
Whether the locals like it or not, it is the lifeblood of the summit county economy. However, I think you will see an increase in deed-restricted and local-only housing as most of the local workforce is currently struggling to find places to live.
Overall?
I cannot predict the future. However, if the summit county real estate market continues to appreciate as it has over the last 40 years, why wouldn’t you buy?
And while I cannot predict future appreciation, I can help you decide if buying in Summit County Colorado is right for you.
