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Monster homes are huge job generators

Scott Condon

Second homes not only bring in more outside dollars to the region than tourism, they also generate more jobs, according to a study by the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments.

The study determined that nearly 49,000 “basic jobs” in a four-county resort region, including Pitkin, were related to the influx of outside dollars. “Secondary jobs” are created because locals in the basic jobs have money in their pockets that gets recirculated in their communities and creates a need for goods and services.

Of those basic jobs, 44 percent were directly tied to second-home construction and positions created in response to spendingof second-home occupants.



In comparison, only 25 percent of the basic jobs were due to winter tourism and 11 percent due to summer tourism, the study said.

Linda Venturoni, director of special projects for the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments, used a hypothetical example of a 100-unit subdivision of second homes in Eagle County to drive home a point about job generation. Her example assumed that each house in the subdivision was 3,000 square feet.




The study looked at the number of construction workers typically needed per house and determined that 1,870 would be employed over the course of the project to complete the subdivision. That doesn’t mean that each project generates that many new jobs. Many of those same workers in her example would also be involved in other projects. However, it shows the appetite that the second-home economy has for workers.

In addition, spending by occupants of those second homes would generate the need for 180 other jobs – everything from restaurant waiters to retail clerks and landscapers, the study showed.

The second-home study is available to the public via a link on Northwest Colorado Council of Government’s Web site: http://nwc.cog.co.us.

Scott Condon’s e-mail address is scondon@aspentimes.com

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