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Colorado - Thu. 08/13/26 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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THE COLORADO ECONOMY AT MIDYEAR
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The Business Research Division at the Leeds School of Business of the University of Colorado Boulder released its “Colorado Business Review: Colorado 2026 Midyear Economic Update” on Tuesday. The midyear report looks at statewide and national economic trends across major industries, employment, population, trade and other key indicators. The overall assessment was that Colorado's economy continued to expand through the first half of 2026, with gains in output, employment and personal income despite elevated inflation, slowing labor force growth and continued global uncertainty. Nationally and in Colorado, employment, output, income and wealth all increased during the first half of 2026. However, new challenges emerged: geopolitical conflict, higher energy prices and rising inflation.
The state added 28,600 jobs in June, up 1 percent year-over-year, the report said. Twelve industries in Colorado saw job losses and eight saw gains, with the most job growth consistently in the healthcare and social assistance sector. CU Boulder also released another economic report on Tuesday detailing trends affecting one of the economic metrics Colorado watches closely. The state saw more than 64,000 new business filings in the second quarter of 2026, up 25 percent year-over-year and countering seasonal trends when business filings usually drop halfway through the year.
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GOING HOME TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE: COMMUNITY-BASED SOLUTIONS
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Justin Ramos grew up in Cortez, and his family roots extended deep into Rock Point, Arizona on the Navajo Reservation ((Tsé Nitsaa Deezʼáhí in Diné), about 90 miles from Cortez. He graduated from the University of Colorado with plans to join the Peace Corps, but the pandemic forced him to take a different direction, and in 2020, he founded the nonprofit Fundamental Needs to help the Navajo Nation deal with the pandemic, delivering water, food boxes, firewood, clothing, and other necessities. He realized the imperative for finding a way to deliver water and electricity to the 17.5-million-acre Navajo Reservation.
His organization found a partner, DigDeep, to develop systems that could function off grid to deliver water. He then created a high-school program to train students in how to build the systems and instituted them in Kirtland and the Rock Point Community School. He then took Fundamental Needs to Cortez to build Cortez Makerspace, an innovation space for students, with 3D printing, laser cutting, textiles, silversmithing and shared workspace. Check it all out at fundamentalneeds.net.
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FISHER PEAK STATE PARK OPENING MORE TRAILS THIS SATURDAY
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Colorado Parks and Wildlife and officials of Fisher Peak State Park are hosting a celebration this Saturday, Aug. 22, to launch the opening of nine miles of new trails in the park, almost doubling the trails to more than 20 miles. Fisher Peak State Park is the newest Colorado state park, created in 2019 and opened for public use in late 2020. It is the 42nd state park in Colorado and is the second largest, covering over 19,000 acres just outside of Trinidad. The celebration on Saturday will include an untimed Poker Hike and Bike and other fun events with prizes. There will be official Fisher Peak State Park merchandise for sale. The celebration is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
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FINISHING OFF WITH SUMMER VACATION? COLORADO’S 8 BEST DOWNTOWNS
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There were only about 2,700 internet sites online when World Atlas was launched in 1994. It has become a very interesting, diverse, accurate site covering geography, countries, maps, and wide-ranging topics, such as "10 Picture-Perfect Main Streets in Australia; 11 Best Places to Live on The Gulf Coast In 2026; 8 Bucket-List Winter Attractions in Utah; How the Romans Supplied a City of a Million People; 9 Best Small Towns to Retire in Portugal"; or how about: "8 Best Downtowns In Colorado.”
The 8 Best Colorado Downtowns:
- Telluride
- Ouray
- Salida
- Breckenridge
- Georgetown
- Durango
- Manitou Springs
- Estes Park
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INFLATION DROPS SLIGHTLY IN JULY TO 3.4%
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The U.S. Dept. of Labor Tuesday reported that the inflation rate cooled to 3.4 percent in July, down slightly from 3.5 percent in June. Core prices rose by 2.5 percent over the past 12 months, down from 2.6 percent in the year through June. Wall Street was especially tuned to this inflation report because officials of the Federal Reserve signaled that they were watching it more closely too. The Fed will have one more month of inflation data before its Sept. 15-16 policy meeting.
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PICNIC ON THE MOUNTAIN HOSTED BY PITCO SENIOR SERVICES RETURNS NEXT WEEK
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Last summer, Pitkin County Senior Services launched its inaugural Picnic on the Mountain at the Wedding Deck on top of Aspen Mountain, and it was a sell-out. Pitkin County Senior Services will host the 2nd annual Picnic on the Mountain on Tuesday, Aug. 18 at Elk Camp at Snowmass. It is a free event, held in collaboration with Aspen One for all those 60+. Check-in for the event will begin at 11:30 a.m. at the Elk Camp Gondola base, with lunch at the top at 11:45 a.m. Attendees will have access to free gondola and alpine coaster tickets, a deck space at Elk Camp and raffle prizes courtesy of Aspen One. There will also be a musical performance by Damian Smith, a local Snowmass musician. There are 100 available spots for participants, which can be claimed by calling 970-920-5432.
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SUN GOES DARK, A TOURISM BOOM, $1,000-A-NIGHT HOTEL ROOMS
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On Tuesday, Aug. 12, the solar eclipse was visible in the U.K., Iceland, northern Spain, Greenland and Portugal. The solar event drove a remarkable surge in travel demand, and hospitality businesses in the view path capitalized on the opportunity. In Reykjavik, hotel prices were on average $1,012 for a night during the week of the solar eclipse, double the rate for the same period in 2025. Meanwhile, short-term rentals averaged $1,172 a night during the week, 178 percent higher than the same time the previous year. In Bilbao, short-term rentals were $1,088 per night, up 206 percent from the same time last year. Hotel rooms were priced at $315 a night, up 35 percent on the previous year.
Data analytics platform AirDNA, reported nearly 64 percent of Iceland’s roughly 9,000 available short-term rentals are within the path of totality. Around 21 percent of Spain’s roughly 365,400 listings are in the path, according to the AirDNA data published on Aug. 11. Rentals within the path in Iceland are seeing demand up 40 percent from a year earlier, compared with 13.2 percent across the rest of the country. In Spain, there was an interesting climatic interference with the eclipse boom, as temperatures have exceeded 104-degree Fahrenheit this summer, and demand there for the night of Aug. 11-12 is down 1.6 percent year over year within the path, compared with a 9.1 percent decline across the rest of Spain, per AirDNA.
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FIGHTING WILDFIRES IN CANADA: HUGE EXPANSES, NO PEOPLE
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So far in the 2020s, Canada has experienced some of its worst fire seasons on record. Currently, there are more than 750 active fires. The intensifying fires and threats of fire have raised concerns among Canadians: Are the enough firefighters across the country to battle these more intense fire seasons? In most of the remote areas across Canada, the majority of residents are First Nation members. In British Columbia, where there are currently more than 100 wildfires burning, there is a growing movement to train residents in rural and remote communities how to safely respond to wildfires before out-of-town crews can arrive. In British Columbia, there is now a firefighting group called Northeast BC Rural Incident Management Team. Sonja Leverkus, a wildfire researcher and specialist, one of the founders of the group, said she has helped train more than 400 people in and around her community of Fort Nelson over the last three years.
The movement grew out of the simple reality, she said, "There are not enough human beings in Canada, to fight the fires that we have currently, especially over the last five years". Her crew, who are primarily indigenous, have carried out prescribed burns, and Leverkus also organized a structural protection training course for locals to learn how to shield buildings from embers that can quickly spur fires that engulf entire towns. So now, there is a growing disconnect between the BC government, who generally prescribes evacuations, while those who are being trained plan to defy evacuation orders and stay until firefighters arrive. While the ‘stay and defend’ mindset is still "aggressively" opposed by the BC officials and the academic community, Leverkus said she is working to have her progam recognized so that those that are trained can remain without being penalized.
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AMERICANS: WEALTHIER, TRAVEL INTERNATIONALLY MORE
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As the U.S. population grows older, it is wealthier and there are more Americans realizing they have more time and more money and as a result are traveling more:
- Americans took a record 24 million trips to Europe in 2025
- Older Americans, who are driving this new era of travel, hold about $110 trillion in wealth
- In 1990, fewer than 5 percent of Americans had a passport
- Now, more than 50 percent do
- The U.S. issued a record 27 million passports in fiscal 2025
International destinations with the greatest growth in U.S. overseas travelers, 2015-25:
- Portugal: 375.9 percent
- Greece: 295.5 percent
- Japan: 249 percent
- Egypt: 243.9 percent
- Fiji: 239.4 percent
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A LOOK AT U.S. INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL, 1ST QUARTER 2026
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The National Travel and Tourism Office has published results of the Survey of International Air Travelers for the first quarter of 2026:
International travel to the U.S.:
- 9.6 million international visitors traveled to the U.S. by air in the first quarter of 2026
- 6.5 million from overseas - the number of international visitors arriving into the U.S. decreased 1.2 percent from the first quarter of 2025
- 2.4 million from Canada - arrivals from Canada decreased 8.7 percent
- 756,000 from Mexico - arrivals from Mexico increased 15.9 percent
- The top overseas source markets were the United Kingdom (836,000), Brazil (499,000), Japan (479,000), China (400,000), and India (370,000)
U.S. traveling outbound internationally:
- 16.4 million U.S. residents traveled to foreign destinations by air in the first quarter of 2026
- 12.0 million to overseas destinations - an increase of 2.6 percent over Q1 2025
- 3.6 million to Mexico - a decrease of 5.4 percent
- 857,000 to Canada - an increase of 6.7 percent
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MARKET UPDATE - 08/12/2026 Close
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(Courtesy of Alpine Bank Wealth Management*)
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Canadian dollar (per U.S. dollar)
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Mexican peso (per U.S. dollar)
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30-year fixed mortgage rate (Freddie Mac 08/06/2026)
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*Not FDIC insured. May lose value. Not guaranteed by the bank.
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Alpine Bank is an independent, employee-owned organization with headquarters in Glenwood Springs and banking offices across Colorado's Western Slope, mountains and Front Range. Alpine Bank serves customers with retail, business, wealth management*, mortgage and electronic banking services. Learn more at alpinebank.com.
*Alpine Bank Wealth Management services are not FDIC insured, may lose value and are not guaranteed by the bank.
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