Once again the local government has decided to halt Short Term Rental (STR) licenses. In a meeting of the County Commissioners on Tuesday, May 24th, a moratorium was put into place in unincorporated Summit County. With a few exceptions, no new Short Term Rental licenses will be issued for 9 months.
Fall 2021 moratorium
Last fall, the county enacted a 90 day moratorium. Before doing so, they had several public meetings and gave a few days after the meeting for anyone wanting a STR license to apply. That resulted in a lot of people applying for licenses, 172 according to the recent Summit Daily article. At the time, we heard about many homeowners applying that had no intent to rent short term at that time. There was a rush to get a license in case the county eliminated the option moving forward. This year, the meeting and enacted moratorium took place in one day so there could be no mad rush from homeowners.
Impacted areas
The 9 month moratorium impacts homes located in unincorporated Summit County. If your home is within town limits of Frisco, Silverthorne, Dillon, Breckenridge or Blue River this does not apply to you. The county has identified resort areas where they would like short term rentals. This moratorium does not apply to those areas either. Those areas are basically Copper Mountain, Keystone and a couple of Breckenridge area neighborhoods. No new short term rental licenses will be allowed during the moratorium in neighborhoods like Wildernest, Summit Cove, Dillon Valley and Mesa Cortina.
Exceptions
There are a few exceptions within the Neighborhood zones. If a buyer is already under contract on a property or if a property is under construction and the foundation has been poured, the new owners have 30 days to apply for a short term rental license. To clarify, this is 30 days from the start of the moratorium. We anticipate this process will be similar to the way they handled this during the moratorium last fall. However, we are waiting for additional information from the county regarding this process.
Impacts of no new short term rental licenses
No matter which side of this issue you are on, for or against short term rentals, these regulations will almost certainly have an impact on real estate. A shift in our market is underway as a result of the increasing interest rates and higher prices. Adding the uncertainty of short term rentals could really cool the Summit County real estate market as we head into our summer selling season.
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