Riverwalk at Ouray Market Study

Ouray draws millions of visitors a year, but many of the people who keep the town running live 40 minutes away in Montrose or Delta. In Ridgway, 86% of workers live somewhere else. Thirty-five percent of housing in Ouray city is short-term rentals. Home prices run eight times the area median income. Workers drive mountain passes in winter, work full shifts, and drive home — because there is almost nothing they can afford in the county.

Western Spaces and Urban Rural Continuum prepared the market study for the Riverwalk at Ouray, a workforce rental development in downtown Ouray. The analysis documented a rental market defined by seasonal volatility, rising rents, and near-zero comparable affordable supply. The commuting data made the case plainly: Ouray can keep importing its workforce from an hour away, or it can build housing that lets people live where they work.