When a Billionaire Invests in People, Not Just Property

A rare feel-good real estate story out of the mountains

If you’ve spent any time in a ski town, you already know the plot: breathtaking views, world-class recreation… and housing costs that have even well-paid locals scrambling to figure out how they’re supposed to stay. According to Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, a median-earning household in Steamboat Springs can reasonably afford about $30,000 per year for housing, or roughly $2,500 per month. At current mortgage rates, that budget would support the purchase of a roughly $500,000 home with a 20% down payment, excluding taxes and homeowner’s insurance. According to Jones, the typical home currently for sale in Steamboat Springs is priced at more than twice that amount, placing homeownership well out of reach for many local households.

Renting isn’t much easier. Median rent in downtown Steamboat Springs now hovers around $3,500 a month—well above what most local workers can comfortably afford. Teachers, service workers, long-time residents, and even doctors are increasingly squeezed out by second-home owners, vacation rentals, and the work-from-anywhere crowd that surged during the pandemic.

Enter Mark Stevens—a billionaire venture capitalist tied to companies like Google, PayPal, and Nvidia, part-owner of the Golden State Warriors, and philanthropist. Like many transplants, Stevens first fell in love with Steamboat in the 1990s while traveling there to ski. That connection eventually led him and his wife, Mary, to make the town home in 2020. A year later, they purchased Strawberry Park Ranch, an $18.5 million 562-acre property acquired for conservation and as a future family home, according to Steamboat Pilot & Today.

This year, however, the Stevens are making headlines for something beyond another high-profile purchase. Instead of adding a luxury retreat to their portfolio, they took a different approach—snapping up an apartment building and making it available specifically to the people who keep Steamboat running.

Riverview Apartments offers below-market rents reserved exclusively for locals who work in Steamboat Springs. There are no complicated housing authority lotteries and no income charts skewed by ultra-wealthy transplants. The requirement is refreshingly straightforward: at least one household member must work 30 or more hours a week locally and earn at least twice the monthly rent. What locals get in return? Studios around $925, two-bedrooms near $1,600, and three-bedrooms at approximately $2,125—prices that quickly drew a line of hopeful renters.

This story lands against a backdrop almost as striking as the Rockies. Colorado’s mountain towns have become magnets for extreme wealth, with estimates suggesting dozens—if not over 80—billionaires owning real estate across places like Aspen, Crested Butte, Telluride, and beyond, drawn by world-class ski resorts and lifestyle appeal. Many have invested heavily in commercial districts, ranches, or entire town centers. Against that backdrop, the Stevens’ approach stands apart. They didn’t just invest in real estate—they invested in people.

In a season when so much slows down, this story is a reminder that housing isn’t only about market cycles and price charts. It’s about people, place, and what it truly means to call somewhere home.