Among its Colorado mountains, Vail Resorts runs Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone and Crested Butte. Aspen's four mountains are run by a different company, Aspen Skiing Company, and neither company decides who lives in the towns below. Housing is set by town and county governments and by individual owners, and the numbers are stark in Breckenridge, where 68% of housing units are second homes or vacation rentals. Vail's town government has responded by acquiring more than 1,040 deed restrictions.
Which company runs which Colorado mountain
| Town | Mountain operator | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Vail | Vail Resorts | Vail.com says the town was built as a ski town from its first day, unlike mining towns such as Aspen or Breckenridge |
| Breckenridge | Vail Resorts | – |
| Keystone | Vail Resorts | – |
| Crested Butte | Vail Resorts | – |
| Aspen and Snowmass | Aspen Skiing Company, LLC | Runs Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass; not part of Vail Resorts |
Vail Resorts also owns Park City Mountain in Utah, which the company's timeline says it bought in 2014. Ownership dates for the Colorado mountains are in the guides to who owns Vail, when Vail Resorts bought Breckenridge, when it bought Crested Butte and how it acquired Park City.
Running the mountain is not the same as owning the town
A ski company operates lifts, lessons and some lodging. Zoning, housing programs and short-term rental rules belong to town and county governments, and homes belong to their individual owners. The figures below describe who lives in a resort town's homes; none of them assigns a housing outcome to a single company.
Breckenridge: second homes and workforce housing
High Country News reported on February 10, 2026 that 68% of Breckenridge's housing units are second homes or vacation rentals, citing a 2023 study on the town's housing site. The same article gives these figures:
| Measure | Figure reported |
|---|---|
| Units that are second homes or vacation rentals | 68% |
| Resident-occupied homes | About 2,300, of which about 1,700 are deed-restricted for the local workforce |
| New deed-restricted units since a $50 million plan in 2022 | More than 400 built; about 300 more expected within four years |
| Additional units the workforce still needs (2023 study) | About 1,200 |
| Home prices over the past decade | Up more than 80% |
A deed restriction limits a home to people who work locally, usually in exchange for a lower price; the article describes one requiring at least 30 hours of work a week in town. For a visitor this means a large share of a resort town's beds are second homes or vacation rentals, while the people who staff the restaurants and lifts compete for a smaller stock of year-round homes.
Vail: buying deed restrictions on existing homes
The Town of Vail's approach is the Vail InDEED program, run by the Vail Local Housing Authority. The town pays a homeowner or developer for a deed restriction that limits the home to people employed in Eagle County. A 2017 plan set a goal of acquiring an additional 1,000 deed-restricted units by 2027, and Vail.gov lists more than 1,040 deed restrictions acquired to date. The town has also built community housing directly: Residences at Main Vail, a 72-home rental development that reached the market in 2023 and is fully deed-restricted, and the 32-home Chamonix Vail community from 2018.
For what daily costs look like from the other side of the counter, see the guide to the cost of living in Vail.
Aspen in 2027: open mountains, closed airport
Aspen Snowmass stays open through a planned closure of Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, which shuts from April 4 to November 19, 2027 for runway reconstruction and reopens in time for the 2027-28 ski season. Aspen One, which announced the closure in May 2026, points travelers to Eagle County Regional Airport (70 miles and about 1.5 hours from Aspen) and Denver International (220 miles, roughly 3.5 hours). Eagle County is also the airport for Vail; the closest airport to Vail covers it, and how far Vail is from Aspen covers the drive between the two.
Choosing between resort towns
Hours change by business and by month, and the best time to go to Vail covers how the seasons differ. To compare towns directly, see Vail versus Breckenridge and Aspen versus Vail.
