San Juan County, Colorado

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $17,646 (18.5%) 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 $77,824 is worth $75,484 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 21.3%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 16.4 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.

• Largest private-sector industry: Accommodation and Food Services employs 119 workers (67.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $32,793. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 95 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $59M (2024).

• Top specialization: Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, Book, and Misc. Retailers concentrates at 9.12x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 4 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 72.1% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: visitor economy. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 5.6x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 45.9% of housing units are vacant, above the Colorado rate of 8.3%, and down from 61.5% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 83.8% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 5.6% of the vacant stock, or 2.6% of all housing units against the 45.9% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $50,000 can pay without cost burden (~$1,250/mo), and 42% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Strong participation: 76.6% labor force participation among working-age residents indicates an engaged, available workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in San Juan County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

San Juan County shows strong potential for sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, book, and misc. retailers attraction, with a 9.12x concentration and 36 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

Most of the employment across the concentrated sub-sectors traces back to a single source of demand. Visitor economy accounts for 72.1% of it, with food services and drinking places the largest single sub-sector at 52.7%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.