VAIL — Ski instructor Todd Novak and his immigration-lawyer wife, Amy, recently won a very special kind of lottery.
As a result, they’ll soon be moving up in the world — to an attached three-bedroom, two-bath home in West Vail for about $400,000.
While the price tag might not sound like a great deal for an attached, three-bedroom house in other parts of the state, it’s a steal in Vail, where similarly sized homes usually go for more than $1 million.
The couple currently owns and lives in a condominium in Vail Commons next to the City Market grocery store that’s also price-restricted by the town housing program. Novak has lived in town for 30 years and has a baby on the way.
“It would be nice if we won the house, but we’re going to have to pay for it,” said Novak, 51, as he told his wife the lottery news.
As part of the town’s housing program, the new home — and the one attached to it — will be allowed to appreciate 3 percent a year in value.
“You’re not going to lose money on it, but you’re not going to make any money, either,” Novak said. “People need to live here, though, to teach guests how to ski and make them dinner.”
The duplex lottery is just the most recent housing help offered in Vail, where the town government controls 655 rental and owned homes. Residents in the program must qualify by working at least 30 hours a week and making 75 percent of their income in an Eagle County business.
The new duplex meets a top town goal of getting more workers living in Vail, said Kim Newbury, a town councilwoman who also lives with her family in a townhouse in the program.
“We feel like we’re able to serve a different income level. . . . We love having families in town,” Newbury said.
While most residents support the town’s housing program, some property owners have complained that as the rental market has softened in recent months, they have been put at a disadvantage in competing with restricted town- rental prices. So far, no one has complained about restricted for-sale home prices.
Communities such as Edwards, Eagle and Gypsum west of Vail have exploded in recent years as developers built new homes to entice former Vail residents to move to cheaper digs. As a result, second-home owners now own 70 percent of all Vail properties.
Jared and Kimberly Biniecki, with 5-week-old Baizley, plan to move into the other side of the duplex when it’s finished in June, after taking third in the lottery. The couple who came in second in the lottery dropped out of the process after not being able to come up with financing, including $12,000 in earnest money.
Jared Biniecki, 31, said he worked hard to take advantage of Vail’s rental programs to save up enough money to buy his own place. His first purchase was a small condominium in downtown Avon.
“I had to cut a lot of things out of my budget to afford to live here,” said Biniecki, a town worker at Dobson Ice Arena. His wife, Kimberly, 36, is a schoolteacher in Edwards.
Homes at Vail Commons, where the Novaks currently live, sell for about $150,000 to $255,000 and range in size up to 1,100 square feet.
A person chosen from a separate “master lottery” held annually in the spring is the most likely candidate to buy the Novaks’ current house, said Nina Timm, town housing coordinator.
The Novaks, the Binieckis and nine other residents qualified for the duplex lottery. The town owns the land where the duplex is being built.
