Colorado Springs has one of the strictest short-term rental regimes in the state, and none of it applies to you.
Since December 2019, a non-owner-occupied short-term rental has been prohibited outright in single-family zones here. Where they are still allowed, each one has to sit at least 500 feet from the next. An owner-occupied permit requires the owner to actually live in the place at least 185 days a year.
All of that governs stays of under thirty days. Cross the line and the rules simply do not reach you — and neither does the roughly 11% in lodging tax that sits on a short stay.
That is why the twelve places below are whole houses and apartments rather than spare rooms. The 30-day market is the only one in this city where an owner can rent out a property they do not live in.
What a month actually costs
On 7 August 2026 there were 12 places listed on Homads for 30+ day stays inside Colorado Springs, from seven owners. Every one is an entire home; there are no private rooms.
Prices run from $1,800 to $11,129 a month, with the middle at $2,675.
Ignore the top of that range. The honest picture is a nine-and-three split:
Nine places between $1,800 and $3,500. That is the real market, and it is the cheapest of the cities we have written about recently.
Three at $6,000, $8,079 and $11,129 — a four-bedroom in Cottonwood Creek, a three-bedroom on West Jackson Street and a four-bedroom on Hollandale Drive with a view. These are large executive houses aimed at a different renter entirely.
Against the conventional market, RentCafe put the Colorado Springs apartment average at $1,531 as of 1 August 2026, down about 0.5% year over year — a one-bedroom at $1,342 and a two-bedroom at $1,632. The furnished monthly median is roughly 1.6 times the two-bedroom average, which is one of the narrower gaps in this series.
And it is meaningfully cheaper than Denver. Denver's furnished monthly median on the same day was $3,175 against a conventional average of $1,910; Colorado Springs is $2,675 against $1,531. Same state, same tax rules, roughly 70 miles apart — and about 16% less to spend a furnished month here. If your work is genuinely flexible between the two, that is worth knowing.
Two more things about the shape of it.
It is a two-bedroom market. Six of the twelve are two-bedrooms, three are three-bedrooms, two are four-bedrooms, and there is exactly one one-bedroom — the Jackson Cottage at $2,550. There are no studios.
Several addresses are doubled up. Two apartments at one Western Drive address at $2,100 each, two at one Fontmore Road address at $2,500 each, and two very different places at the same West Jackson Street address — a one-bedroom cottage at $2,550 and a three-bedroom house at $8,079. Read the listing rather than the street name.
Numbers move. Everything above came off the live listings on 7 August 2026 — worth checking the current set before you plan around it. That page pulls a radius rather than the city limits, so it shows more.
Where to stay, depending on why you're here
Old North End and Patty Jewett. ZIP 80907 — three listings, the most of any. A one-bedroom cottage at $2,550 and a three-bedroom house at $8,079 on West Jackson Street, and a three-bedroom the host describes as Prime Patty Jewett/Old North End Location at $3,500. Just north of downtown, older housing stock, and the most walkable part of this list.
West side, toward the mountains. 80904 — two apartments at one Fontmore Road address, both $2,500, both pet-friendly by the host's description. Close to Garden of the Gods and the foot of the Front Range.
Downtown. 80903. One listing, the San Miguel Cottage at $2,800.
East, along Palmer Park and Academy. 80915 — two apartments on Western Drive at $2,100 each, the cheapest whole apartments in the city.
North-east. 80918 — two listings, an executive townhouse at $3,200 and a four-bedroom house at $6,000.
Northern suburbs. 80919 and 80920, one each — including the $1,800 lower-level guest house on Ultra Drive, which is the cheapest place in the city, and the $11,129 house on Hollandale Drive, which is the most expensive. Same general part of town, six times the price.
Where the work is. Colorado Springs' employment is spread across five military installations and the industry around them: Fort Carson to the south, Peterson Space Force Base to the east by the airport, Schriever Space Force Base further east again, Cheyenne Mountain to the south-west, and the U.S. Air Force Academy to the north. Fort Carson and the Academy are at opposite ends of the city. None of these twelve listings is adjacent to any of them, so check the drive rather than the ZIP.
Why 30 days is the line that matters
Two things stop at thirty days here, and one of them is unusually consequential for whether a place can be rented at all.
The permit regime. Colorado Springs regulates short-term rentals hard. Owner-occupied permits require 185 days a year of actual residence. Non-owner-occupied short-term rentals have been barred from single-family zones for any application made after 26 December 2019, and where they remain permitted they must be at least 500 feet apart. A stay of 30 consecutive days or more is not a short-term rental, so none of this applies — which is precisely why a whole-house furnished market exists here.
The tax. A short stay carries roughly 11% — 2.9% Colorado state sales tax, the city's 2.75% Lodgers and Automobile Rental Tax, and city, county and regional transportation sales taxes on top. At 30 consecutive days it goes to zero. On the $2,675 median that is around $290 a month.
And, as everywhere in Colorado, the exemption is available from the first night. The state's rule requires that the person be a permanent resident of the accommodation and that they "enter into or have entered into a written agreement for occupancy of such room or accommodations for a period of at least thirty consecutive days." The phrase "or has entered into" is what matters: a signed thirty-day agreement, in place before you arrive, is the qualifying document. You do not pay and reclaim.
So: get the length in writing before check-in, and do not let a stay be booked as a rolling 29 days.
One thing Colorado does not give you. There is no statutory day count at which a guest becomes a tenant. Colorado's landlord-tenant statutes define a dwelling unit as a structure "used as a home, residence, or sleeping place by a tenant" and treat hotel rooms separately, but set no calendar threshold. The thirty-day line is a tax and permitting line. What governs your stay is the agreement you sign.
Nothing here is legal or tax advice, and rates and ordinances change. Check the current position before relying on it.
Does the time of year matter?
Summer is the expensive season and it is not close. Colorado Springs is a genuine tourist destination — Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, the Olympic and Paralympic Training Center, the Air Force Academy — and June through August is when the city fills. A monthly rate agreed in advance is the cleanest way around it.
Military moves compound that. Army and Space Force permanent-change-of-station moves cluster in late spring and summer, for the same school-year reason they do everywhere. So the tourist peak and the relocation peak land on top of each other.
Autumn is the best value and the best weather. September and October are clear, warm and quiet.
On altitude and winter. The city sits at about 6,000 feet, higher than Denver, and gets meaningful snow from roughly October to April — though it also gets a lot of sun, and snow tends to melt fast. Wind off the Front Range is a real feature of spring.
Who's actually renting here
The military, in every direction. Five installations, and about half of all Space Force personnel live in Colorado. Fort Carson, Peterson, Schriever, Cheyenne Mountain and the Air Force Academy together produce a continuous flow of PCS moves, temporary duty assignments and training courses — the most reliable mid-term rental demand there is.
But there is a live story you should know about. In September 2025 U.S. Space Command was ordered to move its headquarters from Peterson to Huntsville, Alabama, with the transition expected to run to 2031 or 2032. That is roughly 1,500 military and civilian posts — though one former commander predicted the number who actually move "will likely not exceed 50 people," with the rest replaced by new Huntsville hires and the Colorado Springs staff moving to other work.
And a counterweight. In May 2026 the Space Force floated a $250 million operations facility at Schriever Space Force Base that would add roughly 2,500 civilian jobs in El Paso County, subject to Congressional approval. Meanwhile NORAD and U.S. Northern Command are not going anywhere, and one general's assessment of the local infrastructure was that it is "almost impossible to move." The net direction of this market is genuinely uncertain right now, and that is worth knowing before you commit to anything long.
Defense and aerospace contractors. The industry built around those five installations runs on cleared contract work in fixed terms.
Traveling clinicians. UCHealth Memorial and Penrose-St. Francis both take thirteen-week contracts.
People arriving before they buy. Colorado Springs is substantially cheaper than Denver and has grown quickly on exactly that basis. A furnished quarter while a purchase completes is a common reason to be here.
None of them knows their exit date precisely. That is the whole reason this category exists.
Where to start
Look at what is currently listed in Colorado Springs, and start by ignoring the top three prices — the working market here is $1,800 to $3,500. Check the drive to whichever installation or hospital you are reporting to, because the city is long and the bases are at opposite ends of it. And get thirty days in writing before you arrive, which removes about 11% before you pay anything. If the category is new to you, what mid-term rentals are is the shorter explanation.
Listing counts and prices were read from live Homads data on 7 August 2026 and will have changed. Tax rates, the permit rules and the exemption wording were checked the same day against the City of Colorado Springs, the Colorado Department of Revenue and the Colorado Revised Statutes.