Mineral County, Colorado

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $39,220 (41.1%) under the Colorado median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 3.1% above the national average, so the nominal median of $56,250 is worth $54,559 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 16.0 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Aging population: Median age of 56 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Top specialization: Accommodation concentrates at 11.45x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 7.7x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 67.3% of housing units are vacant, above the Colorado rate of 8.3%, and down from 72.5% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 90.7% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 3% of the vacant stock, or 2% of all housing units against the 67.3% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $38,750 can pay without cost burden (~$969/mo), and 52.1% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 23.9% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 32.8% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 57.1% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 12.4% between 2019 and 2024, from 429 to 376.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Mineral County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Mineral County shows strong potential for accommodation attraction, with a 11.45x concentration and 82 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 32.8% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.