211–220 of 298 posts
I imagine the Swiss have dealt with similar situations, I wonder what they would suggest? Pay employees way more is probably step one. I'm the "build more housing" guy, but it looks like the Swiss have chosen a different path?
Edit: I suspect as most of the larger French ski towns are purpose built you don't have quite the same problems for "locals".
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How is primary residence enforced?
By people observing their neighbors are never there. In small communities everyone knows everyone, and it's in our own interest having a vibrant community, not lots of empty housing only being used during high season. But mainly it's checked by seeing if any person has their primary residence registered at each address zoned to housing. Or by filling in a form saying it's rented out to someone living their temporaril…
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I imagine they would have rather kept their town than a bundle of cash. If it's just a matter of shifting suburbs in a big city that's one thing, but people who choose a ski town to live in do it for the community and way of life.
So if they would've rather kept their town, why the hell did they sell ?
You also have to be able to afford to not sell when where you live gentrifies, prices for everything go up, local taxes go up, restaurants get fancier, services cost more, groceries go up, if you were renting then you get priced out.
Outlaw shaped skis. Everybody has to ski on long, straight skis that can’t be wider than 65 under foot. Watch property values plummet in a week. Edit: accurate prediction of the future: https://youtu.be/qhuHuQ1Bu3o
Or better : outlaw ski lifts. You can still do some skiing or snowboarding, but you have to get to the summit yourself like alpine hunters.
The problem is pretty simple; the stock of mountain resort towns has not kept up to satisfy demand. Imagine 15 or 20 years ago, a trip to a somewhat remote mountain town had a lot of inconveniences like bad internet, unpredictable weather/travel conditions, etc. In the current year, it's very easy to book an entire trip to Vail/Tahoe in 30 minutes. The amenities and infrastructure are decent making it a viable place…
In New Mexico, if you want to hunt from out of state, you have to go through a lottery system. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. I think global warming is going to make it harder for "mountain resort town" supply.
I quite like the rules in the Tirol - you can only own property if you live there. No second homes, no big hotels, no renting out houses. Just small owner operated hotels and locals.
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the tourist dollars do not in any way depend on AirBnB's because most of these resorts were built before AirBnB and were planned, approved, and built with a plan based on hotel capacity. the number of hotel beds and the lift capacity the resorts are tied to each other. similarly, the number of bars and other tourist amenities also gets decided bases on hotel capacity, and while that may have changed since AirBnB star…
> these resorts were built before AirBnB Ever heart of VRBO (est. 1995) or the entire VRMA (est. 1985)?
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So if they would've rather kept their town, why the hell did they sell ?
It's not an ultimatum where they had control over the outcome, the community was already changing around them, so they either live with inflated prices for everything and a fracturing community, or they sell and try somewhere new. You can see the writing on the wall in other words. You also have to be able to afford to not sell when where you live gentrifies, prices for everything go up, local taxes go up, restaurant…
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By bringing down the price of a 2nd home in a mountain resort town, the locals can also more easily afford to live in one. That is, if it were easy to magically create more mountain towns, without other effects on supply and demand.
The gap between what locals can afford and what the houses generally purchased as 2nd homes cost is vast. You saying "bring down the price" as if that's a fairly trivial thing, but to bring them down enough to make them affordable for locals is not a trivial thing at all. I suspect that in general, it just isn't possible.
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It's not an ultimatum where they had control over the outcome, the community was already changing around them, so they either live with inflated prices for everything and a fracturing community, or they sell and try somewhere new. You can see the writing on the wall in other words. You also have to be able to afford to not sell when where you live gentrifies, prices for everything go up, local taxes go up, restaurant…
Prices went up because real estate prices went up because people sold - not the other way around.