Telluride town council members once again visited the subject of Short Term Rental licenses. With the two year moratorium soon coming up, there’s a good chance said moratorium will be allowed to sunset. Like most things political in the Telluride, this has been a hot button topic some one camp saying that short term rentals take away what would be long term housing options for locals, and another camp saying simply that that isn’t the case.
Fast forward two years, the town of Telluride hired expert housing consultants to report back to the community on the effect of having upwards to 750+- STRs. Without going into great detail, the simple facts are that limiting STR licenses really had no impact on creating more long term housing. Ironically, town of Telluride in the last year has seen rental occupancies reduce, whereas Mountain Village saw an increase.
The simple fact of the matter is that real estate values have risen to a point where nothing is affordable in the free market for local buyers. The solution is building more housing for the work force, not messing with the STRs. Our local governments, along with private entities, continue to push for more construction of housing plus highlight areas (Illium Valley) for more units in areas that make sense.
Housing is and will always be a sensitive subject. Yes, we need to build more and we’re working at that. Let’s hope put our focus on that, with full transparency and put the STR subject in the rearview mirror.