Breckenridge’s 2024 affordable housing boom: What $28 million achieved

Tripp Fay/Courtesy photo
Breckenridge officials and staffers ramped up affordable housing initiatives in 2024, and the town had one of its most substantial years for workforce housing efforts, officials say. It came with an over $28 million price tag but resulted in nearly triple the amount of units compared to 2023.
The town introduced 96 affordable housing units in 2023 through both new construction and conversion programs and introduced 275 units in 2024, officials learned at a Tuesday, Jan. 14 meeting.
Throughout 2024, officials consistently showed unanimous support for workforce housing initiatives and budget raises to support the programs. Breckenridge spent around $3.4 million on a program meant to incentivize owners to place a deed restriction on their market-rate home, called Housing Helps. This falls short of the almost $3.8 million the town spent on the program in 2023, but both represent a stark jump from the approximate $269,000 it spent in 2022.
Housing manager Laurie Best notified council in July the town had spent around $2.13 million of the $2.5 million Housing Helps budget for the year due to unforeseen demand. Council unanimously approved an additional $1.2 million to be thrown to the program.
While reviewing the year’s stats, council member Carol Saade said she appreciated the detailed breakdown of Housing Helps, noting it was “reinforcement on why (officials) invest in the program.”
The town, partnering with Summit County government on 11 of the cases, flipped 27 homes from market-rate to deed-restricted in 2024. Documents presented at the Jan. 14 meeting demonstrated the county contributing $862,470 to the 11 properties it helped convert.
For 2025, the town is estimating it will spend around $3 million on the program.
Breckenridge also spent around $1.7 million in 2024 on a similar program called Buy Downs meant to introduce more affordable housing into the community.

Around 240 of the units came from new construction. The town’s new neighborhood geared at the “missing” middle class, Stables Village, created nine homes in 2024. Best said the intention behind the project was to create a ladder of deed-restricted housing locals can climb as their families grow, starting with apartment units and ending with single-family homes. Alongside Stables Village, the Highlands Riverfront development also brought new homes to the community, producing 6 in total.
In terms of apartments and condos, the Larkspur development brought 52 apartments and the second half of the Vista Verde development, Vista Verde II, brought 172 units.
Documents presented to officials showed Breckenridge’s work group for affordable housing, consisting of officials and staff members, are wary of how Vista Verde’s developer, Gorman and Co., are going about filling open units.
“The (work group) was concerned that the developer went through approximately 400 lottery participants and only leased about 50 units,” the document from a Dec. 10 meeting said, noting 350 of the applicants either backed out or were not qualified.
Best said, as of Jan. 14, 126 units had been filled.
She said a part of the issue with the development, which required income testing for certain units, was the income testing process itself. Since funding for the workforce housing development was tied to the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, there were stricter guidelines for income testing, she said.
Some of the units in Vista Verde II were allocated for people making 80% of the area median income. Best explained that in developments which target certain incomes, there’s generally a buffer of a percent or two, but not with Vista Verde II.
This ended up coming at the expense of locals who applied to live in the 80% area median income housing but made slightly above that. Locals in professions that include tipping or those who have the ability to accrue overtime reported struggles with getting into the units made for people making 80% area median income. Some said they were initially approved for cheaper units and the offer was taken away after income testing.
“Staff has asked Gorman for more information on the 350 households (who backed out or weren’t qualified) to better understand if (Vista Verde II) is not serving a need or if the lottery process created issues,” the document from the Dec. 10 affordable housing workgroup meeting said.
Breckenridge expects to introduce around 80 affordable units in 2025.

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