After one of the least snowy winters on record, many in the recreation-heavy economy of Grand County have endured what appears to be, according to the CEO of Vail Resorts’ sentiment, a “worst-case weather scenario.”
Echoes of it being one of the weirdest winters weather-wise are being shouted across kitchen tables in Grand County by both long-time residents and business owners alike. With snowmobile businesses in Grand Lake struggling to consistently open access trails due to low valley snowpack, and a 16% increase in lodging cancellations as compared to last year, a pessimistic view of economic performance can easily be adopted.
There are two facets of Grand County’s recreation-heavy and tourism-fueled economy that need to be examined to make a full conclusion though: How many people are drawn to Grand County despite this off-kilter weather year and how much business did that generate for the county?
Lodging and rentals down over last year
Many communities saw a sizable decrease in bookings through the beginning of 2026. Across the county, there was about a 7% lower occupancy rate through all professionally managed properties, according to the Grand County Tourism Board‘s latest report. Going into March, Fraser, Winter Park and Silvercreek Community properties all are seeing a greater than 10% drop of occupancy rates this month so far as compared to last year during the same period.
With average daily rates remaining similar to last year’s, this connects the dots between the rise in cancellation rates considering thwarted snowfall expectations this year, especially for spring skiers.
Gaylene Ore, executive director of the Grand County Tourism Board, states that “we may be seeing a fall back to pre-pandemic levels of tourism,” noting that the COVID-19 pandemic caused a great spike in mountain travel, especially within Grand County. Ore also notes that “Colorado and Utah are significantly down compared to other western states in terms of lodging and rentals.”
Housing market yields varied results
While the winter months run the slowest on real estate sales in Grand County, an overall cooling of the “hot” real estate market that took over through the past few years continues to be hinted at through recently published statistics. Pending sales in February have decreased 4.5% for single family homes while inventory increased by 11.4% in the same period, according to a recent report by Grand County Realtor’s Association. For townhouse-condo properties, pending sales dropped 15% with available inventory for sale decreasing by 1.4%.
From 2024-25 to 2025-26, there has been about a 20% increase in days that properties are on the market prior to sale. This could also be attributed to an about 25% increase in inventory of active listings year over year.
This slowing, however, seems to be only half the story, says a member of the Grand County Realtors’ Association. With the prospect of Winter Park’s future expansion and the continued development of the county, parties see the last-minute entry into a growing community that is destined to keep growing a very appealing one.
This member also curbed some of the statistical conclusions that there may be too much inventory on the market, attributing it to the mix of high interest rates slowing buying, but not slowing the development of land. This translated to a lot of new-builds that were not immediately going off the market, contributing to the higher number of days that properties were on the market.
While new home and apartment owners were able to be pickier with ample inventory to browse with less competition last year, competition between buyers is starting to pick back up in Grand County.
With the reference point of 33 sold listings last month, this month has started off at a quicker pace as warmer weather starts to bring more prospective homebuyers back out to the mountains in search for their new nest. This narrative refocuses the short-term slump in performance of rentals and numbers of tourists arriving to the greater prospects of Grand County’s future and continued growth.
