Outside Magazine just released what they are calling the 5 least livable ski towns in the USA. These are the toughest places to live like a local due to high home prices, high rent, low amounts of rental units available, and a high cost of living.
It’s challenging to watch as locals get priced out of great ski towns. Jackson, WY was just proven to have the widest income gap of any city in the USA this year and by a lot. Jackson’s top-to-bottom income ratio is 140 times higher than any other city in the USA.
The 5 Least Livable Ski Towns in the USA:
according to Outside Magazine
Aspen, CO
Population: 6,680
Median age: 37
Median home sale price: $2.6 million
Median household income: $72,336
Average rental price: $1,400
Vacancy of rental market: Less than 1%
Jackson, WY
Population: 10,523
Median age: 32
Median home sale price: $1.025 million
Median household income: $64,345
Average rental price: $1,500
Ketchum, ID
Population: 2,689
Median age: 44
Median home sale price: $945,000
Median household income: $63,750
Average rental price: $1,800
Stowe, VT
Population: 4,886
Seasonal population: 8,000
Median age: 44
Median home sale price: $427,500
Median household income: $67,138
Average rental price: $1,194
Cost of living: 34.2 percent higher than U.S. average
Park City, UT
Population: 8,085
Median age: 40
Median home sale price: $716,654
Median household income: $82,864
Average rental price: $1,375
![[UPDATED: June 20] NOAA Winter 2025-26 Outlook: Long-Lead Seasonal Outlook Gives Sneak Peek of Next Winter](https://i0.wp.com/staging.snowbrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/15590259_1384554308223048_766514356792859186_n.jpg?resize=40%2C40&ssl=1){kind=small}
![[PHOTOS] Landslide Tears Through Village Near Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italian Dolomites](https://i0.wp.com/staging.snowbrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_0285-e1750122614536.jpeg?resize=40%2C40&ssl=1){kind=small}
I like the fact that Aspen/Snowmass is on this list….more pow for me.
So the best 5 ski towns are also the least “livable”? Obviously this is all about cost, yet of the other 4 “least livable” how many have almost 3,000 affordable housing units like Aspen?
I can only speak for Jackson but it has one rent controlled apt complex with like maybe 40 units. Probably less. There’s a waiting list ten miles long.
I’m on the housing Authority Ketchum/Sun Valley As far as I know Aspen has the best affordable housing program of the top five.
They must be including rent controlled or “employee housing” as it is called in Aspen. If they didn’t, it would be much, much higher.
I am not sure how they came up with the rental prices, but there is no way Ketchum is $400 dollars a month higher than Aspen.
Jim
Aspen has a much more deed restricted affordable Housing units, in the 1000’s. They got on that problem sooner and more aggressively then we did.