Keystone began as ranchland and mining country in Summit County, Colorado. Modern resort development started in the late 1960s, and the ski area officially opened in 1970. Early lodging was a mix of small inns and hotel rooms near the base of the new lifts, but condominium projects quickly followed as a way to house growing numbers of winter and summer visitors.
The first generation of dedicated condo complexes at Keystone appeared in the early 1970s in West Keystone, just off West Keystone Road and Soda Ridge Road near the Snake River corridor.
One of the earliest and best-documented projects is Wild Irishman Condominiums, built around 1972 in a wooded setting west of the ski base. Close by, the Flying Dutchman Condominiums followed shortly after, with 88 units constructed starting in 1973. These early complexes typically offered studio to three-bedroom units, shared outdoor pools and hot tubs, and shuttle access to the lifts rather than true ski-in/ski-out locations. They set the pattern for Keystone’s condo-based lodging model: relatively compact buildings clustering around shared amenities, parking and open space under tall lodgepole pines.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, condominium development spread east along Highway 6 and around the man-made lake that anchors Lakeside Village, with projects such as Lakeshore, Willows and other lakefront and golf-course oriented buildings. These complexes emphasized views over Keystone Lake, proximity to the conference center and easy shuttle links to the ski base.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, a major wave of construction created River Run Village, Keystone’s primary base-area pedestrian village. Condo buildings such as Silver Mill, Buffalo Lodge, Expedition Station, The Springs, Red Hawk, Timbers and others brought hundreds of new units directly to the gondola plaza. These newer properties tended to be denser than the early West Keystone projects, with structured parking, ground-floor commercial space, and more intensive resort-style amenities.
Outside the original core, the 2010s and 2020s have added infill and higher-end projects, including townhome-style and loft-style condos on remaining parcels:
These projects reflect a shift toward fewer but larger and more expensive units, with structured parking, extensive amenity decks and concierge-level services.
According to recent census and housing data, the Keystone area (the Keystone census-designated place and newly incorporated town) contains roughly 3,600 total housing units. A large majority of these are in multifamily buildings—condos, townhomes and apartments—rather than detached homes. Based on the share of units in multi-unit structures and attached housing, a reasonable estimate is that about 2,800 to 3,000 units in Keystone are part of condominium, townhome or similar multi-unit developments.
The earliest projects in West Keystone each contained dozens of units, while the River Run core and surrounding neighborhoods added several hundred more over the 1990s–2000s. Recent new construction at River Run and in East Keystone adds a smaller but high-value layer of luxury and mixed-use condo stock.
When Keystone’s first condos were built in the early 1970s, Summit County was still an emerging ski region. County-wide median home prices around 1970 were on the order of the mid-$20,000 range for all property types. Early Keystone condo units were typically priced in the tens of thousands of dollars, depending on size and proximity to the lifts—high for rural Colorado at the time, but modest by today’s standards.
By the early 2000s, average multifamily prices in the county had climbed into the mid-$200,000s and beyond, and Keystone’s newer base-area condos often traded higher than that because of true slopeside access and strong rental demand.
Today, Keystone is a high-priced mountain resort market:
Exact historic averages depend on building and year, but the long-term pattern is clear: Keystone condo prices have risen from modest second-home levels in the 1970s to elite mountain-resort pricing today.
In general, condominium living is more energy-efficient per household and per person than living in very large detached homes:
In Keystone, where winter heating is a major energy driver, a modern, well-insulated condo with shared walls and efficient systems will typically have a substantially smaller carbon footprint than a 7,000-square-foot luxury home on a standalone lot. However, overall environmental impact also depends on how often people travel to the resort, how units are furnished and maintained, and whether developments encourage walking and transit or car-dependent patterns.
When the first Keystone condos were approved in the early 1970s, Summit County’s development rules were relatively simple by modern standards. Projects were reviewed under early planned-unit-development and subdivision regulations, but there were fewer detailed requirements for wildfire mitigation, wetlands and riparian buffers, dark-sky lighting, or water-efficient landscaping. There were also no short-term rental license systems and limited attention to workforce housing impacts.
Today, Keystone operates under a much more complex framework:
As a result, new condo projects must navigate environmental review, infrastructure and workforce-housing requirements that did not exist when Wild Irishman and Flying Dutchman were first built.
Keystone is heavily oriented toward second homes and vacation lodging. Across the central mountain counties in Colorado, a very high share of housing units—often more than half—are owned as second homes rather than primary residences. In Summit County specifically, studies have found that a large portion of the housing stock functions as vacation or seasonal housing, with many units placed into professionally managed rental programs.
Property management companies in Keystone routinely market condos, townhomes and duplexes as investment properties, emphasizing that short-term rental income can substantially offset HOA dues, taxes and mortgage payments. The resort’s strong winter demand and growing summer tourism (festivals, biking, golf and events at River Run and Lakeside Village) support high occupancy rates in many complexes, especially those close to the lifts.
At the same time, local housing needs assessments highlight the tension between high-priced vacation rentals and the limited supply of housing affordable to year-round workers, which in turn drives many of the newer regulatory debates.
Future condo development in Keystone sits at the intersection of environmental risk, infrastructure limits and community priorities. Key pressures include:
Taken together, Keystone’s condo landscape has evolved from simple 1970s forest complexes to a dense, highly regulated resort town. Future growth is likely to emphasize infill, redevelopment and higher-value projects on a limited number of remaining sites, all under increasing climate, wildfire and community constraints.
Data source:
County(s) Parcel Data
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