Joining other Colorado ski-resort towns like Vail and Breckenridge, Granby has been named one of the 10 best places in the U.S. to buy a winter vacation home by the rental website Vacasa, which has the county ranked No. 9.

This is the first year Granby has appeared on Vacasa’s list, which was published in Forbes Magazine.

“It was no surprise that states like Colorado, Montana, and Vermont were featured prominently again this winter, but we did welcome a first-time destination to the list: Granby, Colorado, an up-and-coming mountain town nestled between Winter Park and Grand Lake,” Vacasa VP of Sales and Marketing Shaun Greer told Forbes.

The list is determined by the potential profitability for a home used as a short-term rental in the area.

Using the average of property taxes, HOA fees, utilities, insurance and property management fees, Vacasa determined a cap rate, which estimates annual return on an investment.

Coupled with the cap rate, Vacasa looked at median sales prices for the area’s housing market to determine the top locations for buying a winter vacation home.

In Granby, those calculations added up to a 5% annual return, or about $41,295 in rental revenue each year, for a $450,000 home.

Granby Chamber Director Lauren Huber said the town’s appearance on a list like this reflects the year-round growth that has taken place over the past couple of years.

“It’s great to see Granby getting that kind of recognition and seeing that interest in our area is growing because we’re so well centrally located between outdoor recreation hotspots,” Huber said.

On top of its central location, new attractions like the RV camping site at River Run Resort are bringing more tourism to Granby.

In addition, Huber said some second homeowners have made Granby their primary residence during the pandemic, also contributing to the area’s growth.

The growth Huber is talking about can be seen in the town’s sales tax collections, which broke records last year despite COVID-19 restrictions and shutdowns.