Snow has started to cover the ski slopes, Mammoth Mountain had planned to open next week, and new employees want to rent a place to live for the season. This year, it seems like more rental activity, according to Mammoth Lakes Housing Director Jennifer Halferty.
As usual, there are not enough rental units to satisfy the growing workforce in Mammoth Lakes. The Housing organization does offer a free listing of rentals on its website. Go to mammothlakeshousing.com and click on rental vacancies. You can also email or call the Housing office. Property owners can do the same. The phone number is 760-934-4740. Check the website for other contact information.
Director Halferty said that Blizzard Property Management Company in Mammoth also offers rental services. Halferty said she is now receiving more emails than usual and said a lot of people are frustrated because they want a six-month lease or have a pet and can’t find a place that will accept it. And, rental prices remain higher than many want to pay. Right now, there is an influx of people into town looking for jobs or waiting to go to work.
Mammoth Lakes Housing’s own units are full and, as usual, there is a waiting list of 36 people. Halferty said that in the past year the list remains pretty consistent with 30 to 36 people waiting to find a place to live.
As for the wider housing scene, Halferty said that the Town of Mammoth, City of Bishop and Mono County have applied for first time home-buyer funds. If awarded, those funds would provide a down payment for those who qualify. Director Halferty said there are no grant funding applications pending right now to build more rental housing but there may be in the new year.
Right now, she said, Mammoth Lakes Housing is focusing on preserving existing affordable housing in the town.
MMSA should be better stewards of their employee housing situation. I don’t know if people realize that the Chutes costs these guys over 800 a month to share. Prices at MMSA for everything lifts,ski lesson, food all go up. The price of housing for staff continues to go up. Seasonal… Read more »
Raise wages and eliminate TBID. A living wage, as Trouble suggested, would attract and retain more responsible employees. TOML would end up with more responsible tenants that could afford longer leases and higher security deposits, and landlords could lower their rates if units weren’t trashed and had longer occupancy. Eliminate… Read more »
You think MMSA can pay career type wages for positions that were never ment to be careers?
and McDonalds employees want $15 an hour…
If MMSA or McDonalds actually paid living wages to everyone they’d go out of business by pricing themselves out of their markets.
You were joking right?
McDonalds still turns a nice profit in Europe and Australia where it pays higher wages. In-N-Out has starting wage of $10.50 and benefits for full time employees in So Cal, where McDonalds pays minimum wage of $8. Costco pays good amount more than Walmart. Don’t see them going out of… Read more »
From the description of seasonal employee housing one would think they are migrant farm workers being housed.
My husband and I owned rental units for 13 years, and I’ve worked in property management for other landlords, both here and in the Tahoe area. Having a year-long lease and tenant is a much better deal for the landlord and generally for the tenant as well. However, when circumstances… Read more »
I totally understand why Landlords DO NOT WANT to rent to the transient population. I grew up in Mammoth and i have seen how seasonal employees- first years Mammoth kids- ski snowboard bums live. IT IS GROSS! They trash houses- and then you never see them again. Mammoth is expensive.… Read more »
seasonal employees cant afford high rent,simple as that,when i worked for mmsa.we had 5 people living in a 2 bedroom,just to survive,hows that plan to beautify mainstreet coming?
My landlord loves dogs too, but the HOA where I rent doesn’t. I hear a lot of HOA’s don’t allow renters to have dogs. MMSA has a ton of employee housing, but who wants to share a 100 square foot room with another person, and a kitchen with 5 others.
My kids didn’t work for the ski area. They left town, got an education, and now they go skiing anywhere they want. Working for mmsa is a trap for some.. They put up with the low pay because they like the area and like to ski, but hardly have a… Read more »
Mark, I’m glad your kids had smart parents that saw the trap. Here’s an article that should interest other parents. http://nypost.com/2013/10/08/us-adults-are-dumber-than-the-average-human/ WASHINGTON — It’s long been known that America’s school kids haven’t measured well compared with international peers. Now, there’s a new twist: Adults don’t either. In math, reading and… Read more »
No evidence of this here. Nope, none at all. 🙂
You and your Kids are Traitors to your community for moving out 🙂
Unfortunately you find in large cities four bedroom homes with a family, a whole family, renting each bedroom. These are not transients either, but full time employed who’s jobs do not pay anything close to a wage that would permit them to rent an apartment on their own. $500 a… Read more »
Maybe Mammoth Mountain should pay it’s employees a real living wage. Lord knows they get it.
SOME property owners are greedy and SOME renters have no respect for the units they rent and beat the crap out of them. I feel very fortunate that I live in a place with a cool landlord that discounts my rent in exchange for manual labor AND not only allows… Read more »
…”Mammoth Mountain had planned to open next week, and new employees want to rent a place to live for the season.” I suggest that the MMSA employees look to MMSA and it’s employee housing for help. …”a lot of people are frustrated because they want a six-month lease or have… Read more »
Before you vilify me for telling the truth list all the property owners that give discounts to seasonal employees. It doesn’t happen. “…rentals that are .priced to make the most possible money for the property owners.” And then you go on to say: “why else would someone own rental properties… Read more »
Again you are wrong Mr. Warner. Rentals are priced at the market price. When buying my units I did a financial study of each, and was surprised at how many triplexes and fourplexes in the San Jose area I viewed did not have a rental income that paid the full… Read more »
“a lot of people are frustrated because they want a six-month lease or have a pet and can’t find a place that will accept it. And, rental prices remain higher than many want to pay” There’s the problem in a nut shell. There’s plenty of For Rent signs all over… Read more »
Bennet, please delete all my comments in this thread. Clearly I don’t know what I’m talking about.
People can disagree with civility.
BK
Some of us simply cannot disagree with a degree of civility.
Too many years of talk-radio and “I hate liberals” books.
Civility is viewed as a weakness to some of us.
But, be kind to them nevertheless.
Ken, it often isn’t what you have to say, it’s how it sometimes comes across. When it seems you imply that seasonal workers at Mammoth are desperate, stupid transients and that rental property owners are greedy shylocks, you should expect that there could be those who take offense. Read your… Read more »
Mr. Simpson, You imply that I used “shylock” to describe property owners. That is completely untrue. Shylock is your word that you are trying to use to insult and discredit me. Shylock is a disgusting racial epithet that I would never use in any circumstances. I demand a complete retraction… Read more »
Mr. Warner: From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary: Definition of SHYLOCK 1 capitalized : the Jewish usurer and antagonist of Antonio in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice 2 : loan shark I agree that you did not use the word. As you see, it is not a disgusting racial epithet. No… Read more »
Mr. Warner, if a rental in in a condo complex, be aware that many HOAs now demand that any properties within the project be leased for a minimum of one year and owners are required to send the HOA management copies of all lease documents. The rationale is that short… Read more »
Mr. DT, Why would a property owner rent his/her property for only 6 months given all the negative issues you’ve listed? Please correct me but the only reason I can think of — as I pretend to be a property owner — is the opportunity to make more money in… Read more »
You would take a shorter term tenant if that is all you can find or their year long lease is up, they have been a good tenant but they do not have their plans finalized. I have two such tenants, one in my Bay Areaduplex who was married last month… Read more »
Mr. Tortoise, You are treating your tenants well. Good for you and them. But those are different situations than we are discussing. We are talking about someone who just gets into town maybe on Nov. 1; has a job perhaps at MMSA or some where else in town. And has… Read more »
Know one owner, and heard of others on East Coast, who have become reverse snowbirds because of reduced income. They now rent out Florida home in wintertime, and New England home in summertime. That way they capitalize on tourist season in both places and live offseason in each house. Do… Read more »
Large apartment complexes, ones with hundreds of units, can handle a high turnover and offer month to month renting. Larger communities will have such apartment complexes because there will be enough locals seeking cheap digs to keep the place afloat on the off season. But beware, such complexes are not… Read more »