Archuleta County

Archuleta County sits at the appreciation end of the spectrum, but not comfortably enough to make it an easy buy. At a median home price of $578,386 and median rent of $1,992, the gross rent-to-price ratio is 0.41%, which translates to a cap rate of just 2.69%. Run the numbers at 20% down, a 6.85% rate, and you are looking at a monthly mortgage of $3,032, estimated expenses of $697, and monthly cash flow of negative $1,737. Cash-on-cash return comes out to negative 15.67%. This is not a market where the rent covers the debt service; you are writing a check every month and betting on the asset.

That framing tells you exactly who this market does and does not suit. Cash-flow buyers should move on immediately. The math is deeply negative and there is no plausible path to positive cash flow at current prices and rates without a significant rent premium or a drastically below-market acquisition. Appreciation buyers get a more nuanced picture, but not an encouraging one: home prices are down 1.65% year-over-year, and the appreciation score of 42 out of 100 is mediocre. The affordability index of 19 out of 100 signals that the pool of potential buyers who could absorb future supply is thin, which is a cap on appreciation upside. Value-add operators face the same entry-price problem as everyone else. At $578,386 median, you need a substantial discount to basis to create margin, and in a small market of 13,509 people the deal flow to find those opportunities is limited. The overall score of 36 out of 100 and a national percentile rank of 2 are telling: this county scores in the bottom 2% of the 1,000 counties in this dataset.

No economic anchors or employer data were provided for Archuleta County, so any commentary on job base or demand drivers would be speculative. What the population figure of 13,509 does tell you is that this is a small, likely amenity-driven mountain market. Small population means thin rental demand, concentration risk around any single employer or seasonal pattern, and limited liquidity when you want to exit.

On carry costs, the tax picture is a genuine tailwind. Colorado's state-average effective property tax rate is 0.51%, flagged here as low, which is a meaningful difference from higher-tax states. Combined with an insurance rate of 0.33%, the blended monthly tax-and-insurance load is approximately $405, which is baked into the $697 expense estimate. That figure is a state-average estimate and actual county or township rates may differ, so verify at the parcel level before you close. Even with favorable taxes, the $405 monthly carry does nothing to overcome a $1,737 monthly shortfall driven by the debt service.

The primary risks here are concentration and demographic depth. A population of 13,509 means your rental demand is narrow. Mountain resort markets like this one typically have significant short-term rental activity competing with long-term rentals, and many Colorado counties have moved to restrict STR licenses. If local regulation tightens on short-term rentals and you are underwriting to STR income, your business plan breaks. On the demographic side, an affordability index of 19 means the local workforce is largely priced out of ownership, which could support rentals, but it also means that tenant incomes are not growing fast enough to support rent increases that would close the cash-flow gap at these price levels.

Comparing Archuleta to its neighbors, the picture is consistent: Colorado mountain and metro counties are expensive relative to their rental income across the board. Routt County has a rent-to-price ratio of 0.38%, lower than Archuleta's 0.41%, and a median price of $1,086,367, making it more capital-intensive with no better cash-flow math and the same overall score of 36. Grand County's ratio is 0.37%, also worse. Boulder and Denver Counties edge out Archuleta slightly on rent-to-price ratio at 0.42% each, with overall scores of 37, and both carry far deeper liquidity and population density to underwrite against. Jefferson County at 0.37% ratio and a score of 38 is marginally better on overall scoring but has worse rental yield math. If you are committed to a Colorado buy-and-hold and are willing to accept thin or negative cash flow in exchange for appreciation potential, Denver and Boulder offer more population depth and liquidity than Archuleta without sacrificing yield. There is no scenario in this dataset where Archuleta County is the preferred choice over its neighbors for a buy-and-hold investor; its combination of small population, negative cash flow, flat-to-declining prices, and bottom-2% national ranking makes it a market to pass on unless you have a specific off-market angle that dramatically changes the entry basis.