Steamboat Springs, Aspen and Vail all work as second-home towns, and the right one is the one whose price, flight access and rental rules match how you will actually use the home. Through September 2026, the Colorado Association of REALTORS put the year-to-date single-family median sale price at $1,430,000 in Routt County, $8,100,000 in Pitkin County and $1,900,000 in Eagle County.

I am Cheryl Foote, and I sell real estate in Steamboat Springs with Compass. I do not sell in Aspen or Vail, so I have an obvious interest in how this comparison comes out. That is why every figure here comes from a dated public source, and where a fair like-for-like number does not exist, I say so rather than fill the gap.

How do home prices compare in Steamboat Springs, Aspen and Vail?

Aspen’s county sits in a different price bracket from the other two, and Steamboat’s county is the least expensive of the three for single-family homes. Year to date through September 2026, the Colorado Association of REALTORS (CAR) reported a single-family median sale price of $1,430,000 in Routt County, which contains Steamboat Springs, $1,900,000 in Eagle County, which contains Vail, and $8,100,000 in Pitkin County, which contains Aspen. On those figures, the Pitkin County median is about 5.7 times the Routt County median and about 4.3 times the Eagle County median.

Source: Colorado Association of REALTORS, Local Market Update for September 2026, Routt County, Pitkin County and Eagle County reports, current as of October 5, 2026, single-family. Accessed October 2026.

The sales figures on this page cover all sales reported for each area, not necessarily listed or sold by Cheryl Foote or her team, and are intended only to show trends in the area.

I lead with year-to-date figures because CAR’s own footnote warns that one month can look extreme on a small sample. Pitkin County’s townhouse and condo median for September 2026 alone rose 90.8% on just 13 sales.

Why are these county figures rather than town figures?

Because the county is the level at which CAR publishes the same report for all three places. CAR’s Local Market Updates and sortable statistics are organized by county, and its September 15, 2026 release included town-level commentary for Steamboat Springs and none for Aspen or Vail. So all three markets here use county figures.

Each county figure includes every town and unincorporated area in the county, so it is a regional price level, not a resort-town price. For why medians from different sources disagree, read my explainer on why every site shows a different median home price for Steamboat Springs. For Steamboat-only detail, see my October 2026 market report.

How do condo and townhome prices compare?

The gap narrows for attached homes, but the order holds: Routt County lowest, Eagle County next and Pitkin County highest.

Source: Colorado Association of REALTORS, Local Market Update for September 2026, Routt County, Pitkin County and Eagle County reports, current as of October 5, 2026, townhouse/condo. Accessed October 2026.

How long are homes taking to sell, and how much is for sale?

In all three counties, inventory is high relative to the pace of sales. At the end of September 2026, every segment in the two tables showed more than seven months of supply, from 7.8 months for Routt County townhouses and condos to 14.9 months for Pitkin County single-family homes. The higher the figure, the longer current listings would take to clear at the recent pace of sales.

How do you get to Steamboat, Aspen and Vail by air?

Each town is served by a different commercial airport, and the three differ in schedule, carriers and one large 2027 exception.

Sources: Yampa Valley Regional Airport, Steamboat Air Schedule Winter 2026/27 and Airlines page; Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, Airport Guide and Airline Flight Schedule February 2026; Eagle County Regional Airport, Airlines and Destinations and Seasonal Schedule (October 2026 to March 2027). Schedules are set by airlines and change. Accessed October 2026.

What does the Steamboat airport offer?

Yampa Valley Regional Airport in Hayden is owned and operated by Routt County and sits 23 miles from downtown Steamboat Springs, according to the airport. The airport’s Winter 2026/27 schedule, updated August 13, 2026, lists flights from 18 airports on six airlines, with Alaska Airlines adding Portland from February 11, 2027. United flies to Denver on both the airport’s 2026 spring, summer and fall schedule and its winter schedule; the spring, summer and fall schedule ends Southwest’s Denver flights on October 31, 2026. Most seasonal routes run from mid-December to late March, and the schedule notes it is subject to change without notice.

What does the Aspen airport offer, and what happens in 2027?

Aspen/Pitkin County Airport is served by American, Delta and United, and the airport states that RFTA bus service from the airport is free into Aspen and Snowmass Village. Its February 2026 monthly schedule listed flights to and from 10 airports, Charlotte and Phoenix among them.

The airport will close to commercial and general aviation from 11:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 4, 2027, until 7:00 p.m. on Friday, November 19, 2027, for runway reconstruction and other voter-approved infrastructure improvements, according to the airport. During the closure the airport points travelers to Denver International, Grand Junction, Montrose and Eagle County Regional, and its own travel page puts Eagle County Regional about 70 miles and 1 hour 35 minutes from Aspen and Denver International about 200 miles away. If you are buying in Aspen and plan to use the home in summer 2027, build that drive into the plan.

What does the Vail airport offer?

Eagle County Regional Airport describes itself as the closest airport to Vail. Its airlines and destinations page, as I read it on October 12, 2026, lists four airlines and 15 airports: year-round service to Denver on United and to Dallas/Fort Worth on American, plus seasonal flights. Its seasonal schedule for October 2026 to March 2027 lists flights from 16 airports, adding Charlotte on American from December 17, 2026 to January 5, 2027. Aspen’s airport says United and American have added flights at Eagle County Regional for the 2027 closure.

Which ski pass covers each town in 2026-27?

Steamboat and Aspen Snowmass are on the Ikon Pass, and Vail is on the Epic Pass, but the access is not equal. For the 2026-27 season, Ikon’s own comparison chart gives the full Ikon Pass unlimited days at Steamboat with no blackout dates, and seven days at Aspen Snowmass, shared among Aspen Mountain, Snowmass, Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk. The Epic Pass lists Vail among its unlimited resorts, every day of the season including peak dates. No single pass covers all three.

Sources: Ikon Pass, Compare Passes and destination pages for Steamboat and Aspen Snowmass, 26/27 season; Epic Pass and Epic Local Pass pages, 2026/27 season. Accessed October 12, 2026.

Ikon lists blackout dates for the 2026-27 northern hemisphere season of December 26 to 30, 2026, January 16 to 17, 2027 and February 13 to 14, 2027. Epic lists restricted peak dates for the Epic Local Pass of November 27 to 28, 2026, December 26 to 31, 2026, January 16, 2027 and February 13 to 14, 2027.

Can you rent a second home short-term in each town?

Yes in all three, but under three different systems. Steamboat Springs controls where short-term rentals may operate through an overlay zone. Aspen sets which zone districts allow short-term rentals and caps Classic permits, the type a non-resident owner needs, in certain residential districts; the lodge districts and the CC and C-1 commercial districts have no cap. Vail licenses every short-term rental but, according to the town, has no regulations limiting where one can be located. Each rule applies only inside the municipality; outside it, county rules may apply, and Aspen’s permit page points owners to Pitkin County’s separate permit.

Sources: City of Steamboat Springs, Short-Term Rental Rules and Regulations, Licensing, and Municipal Tax pages; City of Aspen, Short-Term Rental Permit and Lodging and STR Taxes pages; Town of Vail, Short-Term Rentals page, Town Code Title 4 Chapter 14 and Short-Term Rental FAQs. Accessed October 2026.

How does Steamboat Springs regulate short-term rentals?

The City of Steamboat Springs adopted its short-term rental overlay zone and licensing program on June 7, 2022, and voters approved a 9% tax on short-term rentals on November 8, 2022. Zone A has no limit on licenses. Zone B is split into six subzones with caps of 5, 20, 18, 17, 12 and 10 licenses, and when a subzone has room the city runs a lottery and keeps the resulting waiting list for one year. Zone C allows no new short-term rentals, although certain properties in Zones B and C are exempt from the caps and prohibition, and hosted and temporary licenses, which cover a home the owner or another permanent resident lives in, are allowed in every zone. My investment property and short-term rental guide covers the zones in more depth.

How does Aspen regulate short-term rentals?

The City of Aspen’s code lists four permit types: three ongoing permits and a Temporary permit used after a sale. The Owner-Occupied permit is for an owner’s primary residence and is limited to 120 rental nights a year. The Lodging Exempt permit is for managers of qualifying lodge and condo-hotel properties. The Classic permit, the one a second-home owner who does not live in Aspen would need, has no limit on nights but is capped in certain residential zone districts. The city’s Classic permit availability summary, last updated August 20, 2026, showed the R/MF zone district at its cap of 190 permits with 55 applications on the waitlist, and the R-15 district at its cap of 47 with 3 waiting. The same summary showed Classic permits still available in other capped districts, including 12 in MU, 10 in R/MFA and 5 in R-15A, and the city’s program guidelines list the L, CL, CC and C-1 zone districts and the Lodge overlays as uncapped.

For stays beginning on or after May 1, 2023, Aspen charges a voter-approved short-term rental tax of 10% on Classic permits and 5% on owner-occupied and lodge-exempt permits, and the city says at least 70% of those receipts go to community affordable housing.

How does Vail regulate short-term rentals?

The Town of Vail requires a short-term rental license before a unit is advertised, and every advertisement must carry the license number. The town code requires $1,000,000 of liability insurance, a fire and life-safety inspection when the license is issued and every three years after, except in buildings with on-site management available at all times, and a local representative within 60 minutes, available around the clock. The town’s FAQ, still linked from its STR page in August 2026, states that there are no current regulations limiting where a short-term rental can be located. The same FAQ lists the taxes a rental collects as a combined 10.8%, none of which applies only to short-term rentals the way Steamboat’s 9% and Aspen’s 5% and 10% do.

Do property taxes differ between Steamboat, Aspen and Vail?

The method is the same in all three; the levy is not. Colorado sets residential assessment rates statewide, and for tax year 2026 the Colorado Division of Property Taxation lists 6.8% for local government levies and 7.05% for school district levies. Each county assessor values the home, and the bill then depends on the levies of every taxing authority that serves the parcel’s tax area, added together. Those levies are set locally and differ from one tax area to the next, even inside one town.

I have not put a side-by-side tax figure here, because a fair one needs each county’s certified levy for a comparable tax area. For a specific property, pull the prior year’s bill from the county treasurer. My Steamboat Springs property tax guide works the Routt County calculation end to end with certified levies.

How do mortgage loan limits differ between the three counties?

All three counties sit above the national baseline. The Federal Housing Finance Agency sets the largest loan Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may acquire, and for 2026 the one-unit limit is $832,750 in most of the country. Where home values are high it rises, up to a ceiling of 150% of the baseline. The 2026 one-unit limit is $1,089,050 in Routt County, $1,209,750 in Pitkin County and $1,249,125 in Eagle County, which is the ceiling. In FHFA’s words, loans above the limit are known as jumbo loans.

Set against the medians above, the year-to-date single-family median sits above the one-unit limit in all three counties. For townhouses and condos, the Routt County and Eagle County medians sit below their county limits and the Pitkin County median sits above its limit. A loan is usually smaller than the price, so this is context, not lending advice; confirm any loan with a lender.

Which town fits your second-home plan?

Match the town to your access, rental plans and budget, using the sources above.

• If your single-family budget is under about $2 million: CAR’s year-to-date medians put Routt and Eagle counties in range and Pitkin County well out of it. Pitkin County’s condo median, $2,725,000, is above both other counties’ single-family medians.
• If you need a flight from a particular city: check that city against each airport’s own winter 2026-27 schedule. Austin, Boston, Dallas Love Field, Fort Lauderdale and Portland appear on Steamboat’s schedule and not on Eagle County Regional’s; Charlotte, Miami, New York JFK and Phoenix appear on Eagle County Regional’s and not on Steamboat’s.
• If you need to fly into Aspen itself between April 4 and November 19, 2027: you cannot. The airport is closed from April 4 to November 19, 2027, and its own page puts Eagle County Regional about 70 miles away.
• If you want a short ride from the airport to town: Aspen’s airport says RFTA bus service is free into Aspen and Snowmass Village, outside the April 4 to November 19, 2027 closure.
• If you plan to rent the home nightly: in Steamboat, confirm the overlay zone for the exact address first; in Aspen, confirm that the zone district allows short-term rentals and, if Classic permits there are capped, whether the district is at its cap and how long the waitlist is; in Vail, expect a license, an inspection and $1,000,000 of liability insurance, with no location limit. In all three, read the HOA rules too.
• If you want unlimited days at your home mountain on one pass: the Ikon Pass is unlimited at Steamboat with no blackout dates, and the Epic Pass is unlimited at Vail including peak dates. The Ikon Pass gives seven days at Aspen Snowmass.
• If you want the widest choice of listings: Eagle County had the most homes for sale in September 2026, 386 single-family homes and 408 townhouses and condos.

If you cannot yet name the airport you will use, the rental rule that applies to the specific address, and the county median your budget sits against, you are not ready to choose between these towns. Once you can, the choice is usually clear.

Frequently Asked Questions