Whether it’s for a few hours, a day or a whole week, whenever we go up the mountain it’s so very hard to pack up and leave it all behind.
Of course we love our house and our little one acre homestead and our life down here in the valley with our friends, family and neighbors. And we know the rivers, lakes and endless trails aren’t going anywhere, but still.. we always comment how much we wish we could just sell our place and buy a secluded cabin in the woods with a few acres to live out the rest of our lives in solitude with our pack of huskies.
They would happily fetch wood for the fire and keep us cozy warm during long, cold winter nights!
Honestly, who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by all this beauty all day, every day, all year round?
Then we look at the real estate listings and reality comes crashing down around us. Even though our house has doubled in value over the last few years, we’d still need to hit the lottery to be able to afford a place just a few miles up the road from us!
It’s so bad here now that in Sun Valley, one of our favorite road trip destinations, the prices are so high that they are talking about letting teachers, nurses and other “regular folks” sleep in tents in the city park because there are no affordable rentals in the entire area for them!
KETCHUM, Idaho — In a town where some of the wealthiest people in the country keep lavish homes, glittering and vast against a backdrop of sweeping mountains, officials are mulling over a plan to allow Ketchum’s nurses, teachers, and service workers to sleep in tents in the city park as rent and housing costs continue to soar out of their grasp.
There’s a bathroom in the park, after all, Ketchum Mayor Neil Bradshaw noted. They could walk over to the YMCA to take a shower before work.
That’s just not right.
Jackson, Wyoming has been this way for quite some time. There is just hardly any affordable housing for the “lesser folks” who want to live and work there. The stark difference between the classes is very evident in these areas and while we love going and playing tourist there, part of us doesn’t want to do it anymore because of this glaringly obvious disparity and the unfairness of it all.
That doesn’t mean we won’t still go up the mountain(s). There are plenty of places to go where us normies can still afford to pay for a camp spot or a fishing license or a day pass into some of the most beautiful places on planet earth.
For now, at least. 😕
Empty Nest Homesteading 
That whole tent situation is so saddening. The fact that normal working class folks would have to stay in tents just to afford to live there is absurd. My husband and I are going to be relocating in the next few years and Wyoming, Montana, or Idaho would be a complete dream but everything is soooooo expensive. Maybe one day!
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It’s crazy how much prices have went up since we moved here! We’ve thought about selling our place since the value has went up so much but where would we go? We’d have to leave the entire Rocky Mountain region to find somewhere affordable and we don’t want to do that. I hope this bubble pops soon, to be honest. But I’m not sure it will with all the international wealth buying up the place. 😦
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It is shocking. All it needs is for one owner to rent out a place to an essential worker – which teachers and nurses are, in my opinion – at an affordable, fair rent. I’m sure others will follow suit, if they want to do the right thing. I’m sure there are at least some of those affluent home owners with hearts?
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Yes! It’s disturbing that the “help” are being treated this way. A tent city in the park? What a demeaning thing to even consider. If I were a teacher or nurse or whatever I’d leave and not cater to these elitists at all.
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I agree. If I can’t be respected for who I am and what I do for the community as a nurse /teacher/supermarket assistant/post office clerk etc., they can see how they manage without.
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