Local governments - from Lincoln County on Oregon's coast to Ketchum in Idaho's Smoky Mountains – are grappling with how to regulate the US$74 billion industry they say fuels their economies while exacerbating their housing crises. In six Rocky Mountains counties, including Steamboat Springs' Routt County, a wave of wealth flooded towns, with nearly two-thirds of 2020 home sales going to newcomers, most making over US$150,000 working outside the counties, according to a survey from the Colorado Association of Ski Towns. When the pandemic opened the floodgates for remote work, Airbnb listings outside of major metro areas rose by nearly 50 per cent between the second quarter of 20, the company said. Even property investment companies have sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into the industry, hoping to pull a larger yield from tourists seeking their own kitchen, some privacy and a break from cookie-cutter hotel rooms. Short-term rentals have become increasingly popular for second homeowners eager to offset the cost of their vacation homes and turn a profit while away.

'It's basically like living in a stationary RV,' said the 42-year-old McDonald, who lives with his wife in a just over 500-square-foot converted motel room for US$ 2,100 a month, the cheapest place they could find. Steamboat Springs is part of a wave of vacation towns across the country facing a housing crisis and grappling with how to regulate the industry they point to as a culprit: Short-term rentals such as those booked through Airbnb and Vrbo that have squeezed small towns' limited housing supply and sent rents skyrocketing for full-time residents. They cram into rooms, some with small refrigerators and 6-foot-wide kitchens, or even just microwave kitchenettes. Now residents like Marc McDonald, who keep the town humming by working service-level jobs, live in the converted motels. In the Colorado ski town of Steamboat Springs, motels line the freeway, once filled with tourists eager to pitch down the slopes or bathe in the local hot springs.

Jon Peot and Matt Philippi navigating down a couloir in Crested Butte, Colorado.

Zillow apartments for sale marlborough