Cost Tracker of San Miguel County Housing Study Conclusions

The San Miguel County Housing Needs Analysis concludes the region needs 1,114 housing units by 2034, and allocates every one of them to an income band and to ownership or rental. It does not price them.

This tool does. For each band it works out what a household at that income can pay, subtracts it from what the unit costs to build, and multiplies by the number of units the study assigns. Change any assumption and every figure moves.

Source: SMC Housing Needs Analysis, Table 21. Income limits are 2025 CHFA for San Miguel County. Analysis by Livable Telluride.

Assumptions

Every input here is a judgment call, not a measurement. The defaults are set to observed local figures where those exist.

Construction cost per sq ft

All three are all-in rates per square foot of livable area: construction, soft costs, infrastructure and structured parking, everything but land. VooDoo's $1,050 is what the only completed local project we can price this way actually cost, its parking garage included, because that garage serves the residents.

Land cost per unit

Per-unit land shares from actual local projects. Sunnyside's land was donated by the County and Canyonlands sits on Town land, so a zero here is a real option rather than a fantasy. But donated land is not free to the public. The same parcel could have been sold at market value, or used for something else the community wants, so setting this to zero does not remove the cost. It moves it off this page.

Per unit: what the household pays, and what the public pays

Each pair of bars is one unit at that income. Both are the same height because the unit costs the same to build either way. The only thing that changes is where the line falls: the solid base is what the household can carry, and the red is what the public has to put in on top. Left bar of each pair is for sale, right is rental.

Buyer pays (mortgage + down payment) Rent supports Public subsidy

Total public cost, split by type

Now multiplied by the units the study assigns. Both charts use the same income bands and the same dollar scale, so they can be read against each other. A band with no units of that tenure shows a zero rather than being dropped.

Units the study allocates to RENT

Units the study allocates to BUY

Cost by income band and type

Units come from the study. Everything else is calculated from the assumptions above.

Income band	Unit modelled	Income used	Units to BUY	Units to RENT	Buyer can pay	Subsidy per for-sale unit	Max rent	Subsidy per rental unit	Total public cost
Total

For-sale subsidy Rental subsidy — bar length is relative to the full development cost of a unit.

How each unit is modelled

The unit follows the income band rather than being fixed, so a single person is not priced into a two-bedroom. Sizes come from the Town of Telluride's own affordable-housing size standards, and household size follows at roughly one and a half people per bedroom, which is the convention federal tax-credit programs use. The income column is then drawn from the matching household column of the 2025 CHFA limits, so the same AMI percentage means more money for a bigger household.

Income band	Unit	Size	Household	Income at 100% AMI	Income used	Cost to build