Each week, we talk with our colleagues at The Colorado Sun about the stories they’re following. This time, environment and health reporter Michael Booth joined us to discuss what owners of properties in mountain towns are saying as the fight over short-term rentals rages on.
Counties and local governments in the mountains have been implementing additional taxes and zoning changes for short-term rentals.
“And all of this is meant to try to stop the growth of short-term rentals, which certain county officials believe is cutting down on long-term rentals and long-term housing for local residents and pushing prices up so high,” Booth told KUNC. “The people who do all the work up in these counties, whether they're teachers or police officers or any number of people, just can't afford to live locally.”
Summit County has a 2% tax on short-term rentals and limits bookings in many neighborhoods to 35 per year. Breckenridge has a $756 per bedroom fee for anyone trying to start a short-term rental.
“Some local owners are saying, ‘look, there are local folks who have spent a lot of their money buying short-term rentals and creating an income for themselves so that they can continue to live here,’” Booth said. “People who have them as second homes from out of the county or out of the local area are saying, ‘you're just creating slush funds for taxes, that we don't even know how you're going to be spending it. You're taxing us without proving that we're the problem in trying to create affordable housing.’”
Further enabling these controversial rule changes is a new state law that took effect this year. The rule allows local governments to collaborate with Airbnb and VRBO and put pressure on them to delist properties that aren't permitted or are violating local rules.
In light of all the changes and resulting discord, The Sun looked into the possibility of a so-called “Airbnbust” in Colorado.
“I think there's a couple of years of fighting, at least, before all of this plays out,” Booth told KUNC. “You've got people who are challenging it in court. You've got homeowners who are banding together, trying to come up with money to hire lawyers to create further court challenges. In some jurisdictions, you've got people who are trying to repeal some of the taxes and some of the zoning changes at the ballot box as a possibility. They could go after individual politicians in terms of recalls or just voting them out of office and putting in people who are more friendly to short-term rentals.”
