Clear Creek County

Clear Creek County scores a 2.96% cap rate against a $564,705 median purchase price, with a gross rent-to-price ratio of 0.0456, or roughly 45.6 basis points. At 6.85% financing, that math produces a monthly mortgage of $2,960 on a 20% down purchase, and the model spits out negative $1,565 in monthly cash flow and a cash-on-cash return of -14.46%. This is not a cash-flow market by any reasonable standard. The appreciation score of 43 out of 100 is the relative bright spot, but home prices actually declined 1.36% year-over-year, so even the appreciation thesis requires patience and a belief in mean reversion rather than momentum. The affordability index sits at 20 out of 100, ranking Clear Creek 757th out of 1,000 counties nationally (3rd percentile) and 47th out of 62 Colorado counties. The county is expensive relative to the income base that can service rents, which is the root cause of the structural cash-flow deficit.

Given those numbers, the cash-flow buyer has almost no business here unless they can bring substantially more equity to the table, accept very thin yields as a trade-off for mountain-market appreciation over a long hold, or acquire below median through a distressed or value-add purchase. The -14.46% cash-on-cash return is a real number, not a rounding error, and it assumes standard leverage. An appreciation buyer with a 10-plus-year horizon and strong liquidity elsewhere could rationalize the carry, but the 1.36% price decline removes any near-term tailwind to hang that thesis on. The value-add operator is the most plausible buyer here, specifically someone who can acquire below $564,705, force appreciation through renovation, and either refinance into a lower basis or sell into the mountain-property buyer pool. The affordability index of 20 is a warning that tenant depth is thin, so even a stabilized value-add asset will face an upside ceiling on rents.

No economic anchors or employer data were provided for Clear Creek County, so job-base analysis is outside the scope of what the data can support here. What the population figure of 9,403 does tell you is that this is a very small county with a correspondingly thin tenant pool. Limited population concentration amplifies the risk of extended vacancy between tenancies and narrows the buyer pool when you eventually exit, both of which are material to underwriting a buy-and-hold strategy.

On carry costs, the tax picture is actually a modest tailwind. Colorado's state-average effective property tax rate of 0.51% (per Tax Foundation 2024 data, with the honest caveat that county and township rates may differ from this estimate) produces an annual tax bill of roughly $2,880 on the median-priced asset. Combined with $1,864 in estimated annual insurance, the monthly tax-and-insurance load is approximately $395. That is not a trivial number, but it is meaningfully below what you would see in a high-tax state at the same price point. The low property tax flag is a real structural advantage, and it shows up inside the $751 monthly expense estimate. It softens the bleeding, but does not reverse the negative cash flow.

The concentrated risk here is demographic and liquidity-driven. A county of 9,403 people in a mountain location is exposed to second-home and short-term rental demand cycles, which can compress long-term rental supply and push up acquisition prices, exactly the dynamic the rent-to-price ratio of 0.0456 likely reflects. If short-term rental regulations tighten, a flood of former Airbnb inventory could hit the long-term market simultaneously, pressuring rents downward just as carrying costs remain fixed. That is a scenario worth stress-testing in any underwrite, though regulatory specifics are not available in the provided data.

Stacked against its neighbors, Clear Creek's rent-to-price ratio of 0.0456 is actually the highest in the comparison set, which is worth noting. Jefferson County sits at 0.0375, Arapahoe at 0.0423, Douglas at 0.0377, Larimer at 0.0416, and Chaffee at 0.0432. So on a pure gross-yield basis, Clear Creek leads the group, which is why the overall score of 39 is only marginally below the 40s posted by Arapahoe, Douglas, Larimer, and Chaffee. An investor should choose Clear Creek over a neighbor specifically when they believe the mountain-location premium on rents relative to home prices will sustain or widen, and when they can underwrite the thin tenant pool risk. If the priority is a slightly larger labor market with better tenant depth and still-acceptable yields, Arapahoe County at a $507,157 median and 0.0423 ratio offers lower entry cost with a deeper renter base. Clear Creek only earns the allocation when the investor has a clear value-add or location-specific angle that cannot be replicated in a more liquid suburban county.