Travel + Leisure Magazine recently ranked Colorado as one of the top 10 ski towns to buy a vacation home in, and Involve Property Management put them on their top 10 National list of ski towns where you should buy a short-term rental. And in this video, I’m going to explain why Alma, Colorado is on both those lists and hopefully convince you to consider Alma for your home.

My name is Betsy Rapaske, and I’m a realtor here in the mountains of Colorado. Alma, in particular, holds a special place in my heart because I live about 15 minutes outside of town. A majority of my clients who are looking for a vacation home here in the mountains are also hoping to be able to do short-term rentals. If your main goal in buying a vacation property is to find one that cash flows, make sure that you stick around to the end of this video for my bonus tip.

Proximity is the number one reason why Alma is on this list. Mostly proximated Breckenridge Main Street, Alma is about 15 minutes to Breckenridge, and most homes in Alma are about 30 minutes to Breck. If you’re looking for somewhere to spend time in the summer outside of Alma, I’d recommend taking the less than an hour drive over to Buena Vista, which is known for whitewater rafting and hot springs.

Within less than 10 minutes from Alma, you can be at some of Colorado’s most famous hiking trails, including the Decalibron, which has four fourteeners that you can hike in a single day. A fourteener is what we call a mountain whose peak is at over 14,000 feet. In addition to the Decalibron, you’re also about 10 minutes from Quandary, which is the most popular 14er in the entire state. If you’re looking for something a little bit less intense than going up to 14,000 feet, there are any number of other hiking trails in the Alma area that all have beautiful mountain views.

Alma itself is a pretty small town, but I think that you’ll learn to love the local businesses as much as we do. Otto’s Food Cart is a local fan favorite. My favorite thing about it is the breakfast quesadilla, and my favorite review actually is one that somebody posted on Google that I’m gonna post here. It says it all. In addition to Otto’s Food Cart, we have the South Park Bar, which is the only bar in town, that is a perfect place to grab pizza and a beer after a long day spent outside. The Al Mart is arguably famous, which is the General Store in town, and you’ve probably seen their logo riding around on some bumpers in Colorado if you’ve been driving around the state long enough.

Al Mart has the basics that you probably need in the grocery store. In addition to outdoor clothing, they’re a registered Carhartt dealer, so if you need any Carhartt clothing, Al art’s got you covered. Any groceries that you need that you can’t find in All Mark, you can pop over to Prather’s Fairplay, which is about 15 minutes away, or pop into Breckenridge, and City Market is about 20 minutes from the Al Mart.

Just a couple doors down from Al Mart, you have Big Nippers, which is a thrift store and sort of a found goods store. We have a 100-year-old toboggan that we found there after having a couple beers across the street at South Park Pub that hangs on our wall and is one of our favorite finds. It’s always worth popping in there to see what knickknacks and crazy things they’ve had. I’ve seen everything from a Chia Pet to true antiques like this toboggan. If you’re looking for souvenirs to send home or just something a little bit more mountainy for your own wardrobe, Sheepherders specializes in Sherpa, so think like vests and triple coats, and I am absolutely lusting after one of their moccasins.

Oh, it does have two dispensories because what would a Colorado town be without a dispensary? Northern Standard is at the end of town headed towards Breck, and right next to Northern Standard is the greenhouse that grows everything right here in the mountains. The reason that’s important is that we need plants that are used to high elevations, so they’re actually able to survive. This greenhouse is famous for their hanging baskets, and they’re actually the ones that you see on Main Street.

Rental demand in Alma, as adorable as the little town is, is mainly driven by its proximity to Breckenridge. But the reason that Alma makes this list and Breckenridge doesn’t is investability. This is the ratio of purchase price to your projected rental income. For example, in Summit County, a three-bedroom property will average about 1.1 million, and the average rental revenue for a property of that size is about 36,000 a year. In Alma area, you can get a three-bedroom from around 665,000, and your expected annual revenue on a short-term rental is about thirty thousand dollars. So, while the short-term revenue is about 20% lower, the property value is about 40% lower, so it’s a much better ratio of purchase price to what you can expect to get in short-term rental income.

Winter Park is the next most affordable ski town behind Breckenridge, and Alma beats out the short-term rental investability ratio in Winter Park. Involve Property Management puts Alma area cap rates at about 5.7 percent, which is a pretty solid rate but might not be quite what you were expecting or hoping for. If you were hoping for a better cap rate, make sure you watch to the end for that bonus.

Another reason why Alma beats out a lot of other mountain towns is that Park County has some of the most limited short-term rental restrictions. They do require you to have a license, but there is no cap on the number of nights per year you can rent or on the number of licenses that they issue. This is compared to the neighboring Chaffee counties, which capped their short-term rental licenses at six percent of total housing units, which makes it nearly impossible to get a license. And in Summit County, the new rules are a bit convoluted and complicated, but more importantly, if you’re in the unincorporated parts of Summit, the closest to Alma, going forward, you’re going to be limited to 35 bookings per year, which means that the cap rates in Alma are going to look better and better compared to what you’re able to do in Summit County.

The last reason to consider Alma is long-term investment. Because of these short-term rental restrictions in neighboring counties and the increasing property prices in Summit County, we’re seeing more and more people consider the Alma\Fairplay area, Northern Park County, which is where we see Alma. And the neighboring town of Fairplay averaged 11% appreciation in 2022. Properties in this area are on track by the end of 2023 to have tripled in value since 2015, and they are showing no signs of slowing down.

Hopefully, I’ve convinced you to add Alma to your list of mountain towns to consider when looking for your own mountain home. And if I have, please fill out the form and the link below or shoot me an email so we can set up a consult to talk about your particular vacation property goals. Please like and subscribe so you can continue to learn about our real estate market and our towns here in the beautiful mountains of Colorado. And find me on social at Bestsy Repaske on any platform.