A Landlord’s Guide to Renting in Crowley County, Colorado
Crowley County is Colorado’s most statistically anomalous county — and one of the most misunderstood. Located on the High Plains of southeastern Colorado, 50 miles east of Pueblo along US Highway 96 in the Arkansas River valley, Crowley County covers 800 square miles of farmland, prairie, and reservoir country. It is named for Senator John H. Crowley and was established by the Colorado legislature in 1911. By virtually every conventional measure — population density, income levels, housing values, rental rates — Crowley County sits at the affordable extreme of the Colorado market. But the county’s demographic reality is defined by a fact that has no parallel elsewhere in the United States: as of the 2020 census, Crowley County had the highest percentage of incarcerated prisoners relative to its non-incarcerated population of any county in the country. Understanding this fact, and its implications for the actual civilian rental market, is essential groundwork for any landlord considering property in the county.
The Two Counties: Incarcerated and Civilian
Crowley County’s reported population of approximately 5,700 includes roughly 2,600 incarcerated individuals housed at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility (state-operated, in Ordway) and the Crowley County Correctional Facility (privately operated by CoreCivic, in Olney Springs). These inmates are counted at their facility addresses for census and reporting purposes, which means that nearly half of the county’s “population” consists of people who are not residents in any meaningful sense and who have no participation in the civilian housing market. The actual civilian residential population of Crowley County — the people who live in Ordway, Sugar City, Olney Springs, Crowley, and the surrounding farms and ranches — is approximately 3,000–3,100 people. This is the market that landlords actually serve.
This census distortion matters for a specific practical reason: county-level demographic statistics that include the incarcerated population — poverty rates, income figures, age distributions — do not accurately reflect the economic circumstances of the civilian population that landlords interact with. Corrections officers, feedlot workers, farmers, teachers, and county government employees represent a stable, income-earning civilian workforce whose financial profile is considerably stronger than aggregate county statistics suggest. The median household income in Ordway runs approximately $54,583 for civilian residents — a figure that is modest but reflects the genuine economic capacity of the corrections and agricultural workforce that actually pays rent in this county.
The Corrections Economy: Employer, Risk, and Opportunity
The two correctional facilities are simultaneously the county’s largest employer, its largest source of stable household income for the rental market, and its greatest structural economic risk. Together, the state-run Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility and the CoreCivic-operated Crowley County Correctional Facility account for nearly half of the county’s total taxable property value and directly employ a substantial portion of the county’s civilian workforce. Corrections officers, administrative staff, healthcare personnel, kitchen and maintenance workers, and management employees at these facilities earn steady government or corporate wages with benefits — the kind of financial stability that makes for reliable, long-term tenants at the $450–$650/month rent levels that prevail in Crowley County.
The risk is equally real. Corrections policy at the state and federal level has periodically moved in directions that could threaten the county’s facility operations. Colorado legislators have discussed closing private correctional facilities; the state has considered realigning facility populations; and CoreCivic’s operating contract for the Crowley County Correctional Facility is subject to renewal. The county has actively and publicly opposed any measures that would reduce facility operations, recognizing that the fiscal consequences of a closure would be catastrophic for local revenue, employment, and property values. Landlords who own rental property in Crowley County are implicitly exposed to this institutional risk. It is not a near-term crisis, but it is a structural vulnerability that distinguishes this market from any other in Colorado.
Agriculture, Cantaloupes, and the Arkansas Valley
Beyond the corrections economy, Crowley County has a genuine agricultural identity. The county is a leading producer of cantaloupes within Colorado — the warm, dry summers and fertile Arkansas River valley soils create ideal growing conditions for this crop, and Crowley County melons have a regional reputation for quality. A 55,000-head capacity cattle feedlot represents the county’s other major agricultural employer, providing industrial-scale livestock operations that generate stable year-round employment. This agricultural workforce — feedlot workers, farm operators, irrigation managers, and their families — represents another component of the civilian tenant pool, distinct from but complementary to the corrections workforce.
The county’s water resources — Lake Meredith and several other reservoirs and lakes — provide recreational opportunities including boating, fishing, and camping that give Crowley County a quality-of-life asset that its sparse population and remote location might not suggest. These amenities contribute modestly to the county’s appeal as a place to live for people whose work anchors them to the area.
The Landlord Opportunity: Affordable Entry, Stable Workforce
For the right kind of landlord, Crowley County presents a genuinely compelling opportunity. With average existing home prices of approximately $57,200 and rental rates of $450–$650/month, the entry cost is among the lowest of any county in Colorado. A corrections officer earning a state government wage who rents a two-bedroom house for $600/month has a rent-to-income ratio that is extremely favorable by any standard. Default risk from the core corrections and government workforce is low. Turnover, while higher than in growth markets, is manageable with good tenant relationships. Colorado’s 2024 habitability and just-cause framework applies here as everywhere, but in a market where rents are this low and tenant income stability is this high, the practical compliance burden is modest.
The landlord who succeeds in Crowley County is one who understands the corrections economy, builds tenant relationships with corrections staff and their families, maintains properties well enough to retain good tenants, and monitors the facility risk at a policy level without overreacting to it. This is not a market for passive remote investors expecting appreciation-driven returns. It is a market for engaged local landlords providing an essential housing service to a stable, government-employed workforce in one of Colorado’s most isolated and overlooked communities.
Crowley County landlord-tenant matters are governed by CRS Title 38, Article 12 and CRS Title 13, Article 40. Nonpayment notice: 10 days (3 days for exempt agreements). Lease violation: 10 days to cure or quit. No-fault non-renewal: 90 days with qualifying reason. Late fee grace period: 7 days; maximum fee: $50 or 5% of past-due rent. Security deposit return: 30 days (60 days if agreed). No rent control statewide. Prison population counted in census figures is not part of the civilian rental market. High radon potential — testing recommended. Evictions filed in Crowley County Court. Consult a licensed Colorado attorney before taking legal action. Last updated: April 2026.
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