Elected president of state real estate board, Mark Gordon, lobbies hard for home ownership

August 6, 2026 - 02:48

Mark Gordon has spent his entire career in the Vail Valley, and he has no intention of leaving. Now, as the newly elected president of the state real estate board, he is turning that lifelong attachment into a full-throttle campaign for homeownership. Gordon, who has long resisted any move west of Dowd Junction, says his commitment to the area is not just personal. It is the foundation of his new professional mission.

His central argument is simple. People who own homes take care of their communities. They invest in schools, they volunteer, and they stick around when times get tough. Renters, he says, are more transient, and that hurts the social fabric. Gordon is not shy about pushing this message hard, even when it makes some of his colleagues uncomfortable.

The board president is now focusing on what he calls realistic pathways to ownership. He wants to streamline down payment assistance programs and push for more density in already developed areas, rather than sprawling into open land. He acknowledges that the market is tough, but he insists that giving up is not an option. In his view, the future of the state depends on whether ordinary people can still afford to put down roots. And for Gordon, there is no place better to do that than the place he calls home.