Want a $750,000 house in Jackson. WY for $230,000? Read this - Page 2

So what if the local family owns a home, some kind of life change happens and they must move. Can they rent the house out?

And how often do town ordinances stick around for 30 years? Seems having your house capped at 3% for 20-30 years and then that restriction is listed and you have a home worth $2 million, you win big time! Lower taxes most of your ownership, sell at a profit?

Also, what are the chances that the out-of-town $2 million home owners won't retire there, and get bored, end up on the board and change a few things? What if you as a local end up on the board and want to change a few things?

The deed restrictions are recorded with the deed at the time of sale/purchase.

That means that the restrictions become a part of the covenants, conditions and restrictions for that property in perpetuity.

Your comment about the megabucks retirees coming here, getting bored, and getting elected to the various commissions is even more interesting. For those most part here in Jackson (and I suspect in lots of other resort communities), those are the people who are the MOST restrictive on new development. They are the classic close-the-door-behind-me folks who want to limit all additional development now that they've got their little slice of the local heaven.

So, if anything, I believe that our future regulations will lean even more heavily toward deed restrictions with even more teeth.

I don't know anything about JH so all my comments only apply to Summit County, CO. We don't have anywhere remotely close to 70 families applying for units. The last time I checked there were zero people waiting for some of our deed restricted properties.

Many locals here find other better options. It certainly requires research, work, taking risk and sacrifice. But the rewards historically have been spectacular.

This ain't Dallas. The markets are very, very different. Right now we are in a massive construction boom with very little land left to build on. It's basically a building panic. It's unknown what will occur to the local job market when construction slows or stops. I've analyzed all the job growth studies and IMO they're very weak in logic and are biased in order to make political arguments. The good news is that some of the locals in power are very aware of the danger in overbuilding the low-end market and will be careful.

I sincerely hope that's true since the people that own these units are my friends and neigbors.

Generally no. Bob's right. The restrictions cannot be changed by local legislation. And as he states about JH, we are currently putting more teeth behind the restrictions, such as stricter policing of eligibility requirements. Our towns and county are also trying to make the restrictions more standardized within the county.

Interesting. How much of a contribution to the local economy is the construction work, compared to the tourism dollars? You think there'll be even a decline sometime in the future?

Tourism jobs are relatively constant but low paying. Construction jobs are high paying but transient. I don't know exactly what percentage of locals jobs are construction related but it's very significant. The job studies I've read extrapolate the good times and treat the 2000-2002 period as an anomoly. They don't consider buildout's effect on local jobs. So I believe they are significantly flawed. The company that does the studies are very biased in favor of affordable housing.

Constuction will slow dramatically in the next few years. Pretty much all the major projects locally are either under construction now or ready to break ground. Available building lots for single family homes are nearing zero much faster than predicted. When the land's gone, all that's left is redevelopment which will occur but at a much slower pace. We do have a signficant number of affordable housing communities that will go up on public land. So that will keep some construction jobs around a little longer.

Locally, our affordable housing is not like the OP about JH. They're going to run over $200/sq ft because that's what it cost to build small homes here with cheap finishes even when they get free land and permitting discounts. There's no structural shortcuts available because of snow loads, ground freeze levels, and 100+ mph winds. So, a deed-restricted 1200 foot house with a garage will probably run about $250-280k while if it were a market home it'd probably be worth about $400-500k currently.

I think we're jumping on the problem early which is good. By the time our market prices compare with Vail, JH, Telluride, or Aspen, we'll have a signficant inventory of affordable housing so our towns remain towns all year. The challenge is to the build the right amount so that locals get that 3-6% appreciation they deserve and need to make their investments successful.