 The valley has been one of the most rapidly growing areas of Colorado in recent years, not only in the vicinity of Aspen, but notably in the lower end of the valley below Basalt.The communities of Basalt and Carbondale have served as bedroom communities for day workers in Aspen, where high property values have increasingly strained the ability of low and middle-income workers to afford the cost of living, though the affluence that marks the Upper Roaring Fork Valley is gradually leaking into the rest of the Valley.Many employees in Glenwood Springs live further down the Colorado river due to the same acute lack of affordable housing.