Living in Colorado, for many, means spending a lot of time worrying about how to make the rent or the mortgage, or whether they鈥檒l ever be able to buy a home.
Housing costs have been on a long and sometimes sharp climb throughout the state. In Colorado Springs, home prices have , according to the Common Sense Institute. In the Denver area, the average sale price for homes this year is , up from a decade ago.
That shift has been driven by a long-running mismatch in supply and demand. Between 2013 and 2020, more than 40,000 new people a year were moving to the state. And while Colorado has , it hasn鈥檛 been enough to keep prices from climbing ever higher.
鈥淚've lived in Colorado my entire life,鈥� Maciej Wal wrote in his response to the Voter Voices survey. 鈥淲hen I was graduating high school in 2013, a $50,000 a year salary would get you a house, a car, and money to be able to THRIVE. Now if you make $50,000 a year, you are barely surviving.鈥�
In many ways, what鈥檚 happening here is just an extreme version of what people are experiencing across the country. Since the Great Recession, America has seen , with more and more middle-income families .
Those trends have hit renters hard, too. Denver鈥檚 median monthly rent increased between 2009 and 2021, climbing from $856 a month to $1,554, one of the steepest increases in the country in that period. found that a quarter of Denver tenants spend more than half their paycheck on rent. Today, the average rent in Pueblo stands at for a one bedroom. In Grand Junction, .
While both and have leveled off in the last year or so, households across Colorado still feel the strain.
For his part, Wal, a political moderate who lives south of Denver, is frustrated by all the forces he sees standing in the way of building more housing.
鈥淲e have people blocking new developments because they don鈥檛 like change,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd the developments that we do get are all for rent. How are we supposed to build community when no one feels like they own a stake in their community?
Wal wants to see Colorado start building more affordable units, like condos, that people can buy into, and feel like they are part of something.
If housing costs and development are top concerns for you, here is where your vote has the most impact.
Presidential race
Both candidates have offered ideas to lower housing costs.
The centerpiece of is a proposal to help first-time homebuyers with $25,000 in downpayment assistance, although critics note that wouldn鈥檛 address the shortage of starter homes on the market.
She鈥檚 also pitching new tax incentives for builders who focus on affordable housing, with the goal of 3 million new housing units built nationwide over the next four years. And she wants to double an existing program that supports local governments to pursue 鈥渋nnovative鈥� approaches to affordable housing, bringing funding to $40 billion.
Harris also wants Congress to crack down on two elements of the housing market that have increasingly been a focus for Colorado lawmakers 鈥� the trend of as investment properties, and that aggregate market data.
Former President Donald Trump鈥檚 housing plan contains fewer specifics.
During his first term, he to examine regulatory hurdles to affordable housing, and could potentially draw from their recommendations, should he win a second term.
In this campaign, Trump has and said that his plans for mass deportations will also help bring down rents around the country. However, construction industry groups and economists warn that large-scale removal of undocumented immigrants would likely also needed to build new housing.
He has for encouraging communities to drop single-family zoning. And Trump has proposed , each the size of the District of Columbia, from the ground up on federal land. While the proposal is light on details, most undeveloped federal land is , like Colorado.
Congressional races
Many of the housing proposals from the presidential candidates will actually depend on getting Congress to go along. Two of the bills Harris specifically mentions in her plan, the and the are Democratic bills without any Republican sponsors.
Colorado鈥檚 Republican and Democratic congressional candidates blame different causes 鈥� and propose different solutions 鈥� to the housing crisis.
Like many of his fellow Republican candidates, Gabe Evans, who鈥檚 trying to flip the Eighth District, blames federal spending for contributing to higher housing costs and says he鈥檇 work to dial back federal dollars.
Evans argues that government spending sparked the recent jump in inflation, which led the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in recent years. Those higher rates have meant higher mortgage payments for homebuyers, and encouraged homeowners to stay put, rather than lose their favorable rates. The trend is shifting, though; in September, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates for the first time in four years, with more cuts in the future.
Rep. Yadira Caraveo, the Democrat whom Evans is trying to unseat, touts her support for (and renaming it the affordable housing tax credit). She鈥檚 also a co-sponsor on that would prod local governments to allow denser housing, which tends to be more affordable.
Many of the Republican candidates also criticize federal they argue drive up the cost of new homes. For their part, Democratic candidates lean into federal funding and tax incentives to support affordable housing construction.
Two of Colorado鈥檚 members of Congress have thrown their bipartisan support behind an effort to build new housing for mountain towns on nearby national forest land. Rep. Joe Neguse is sponsoring , with Rep. Lauren Boebert signed on as .
State lawmakers
Housing has become a top issue for Colorado鈥檚 legislature in recent sessions.
For Gov. Jared Polis and many Democratic lawmakers, the solution lies in getting local governments to allow denser development in areas that are currently zoned for single family houses. The idea is that condos, townhomes and apartment buildings are more attainable for many households, while also being easier to serve with public transit.
The most ambitious effort in this area, that would have required cities to allow multi-family development and accessory dwelling units in more areas, failed last year amid strong local government opposition. Since then, lawmakers have taken a more piecemeal approach. They鈥檝e struck down local growth caps. They鈥檝e also forced dozens of cities to ; near transit corridors; and in some areas, among other changes.
While the issue doesn鈥檛 break down entirely on party lines, most of the support for the state getting involved in local development decisions comes from Democratic lawmakers. Republicans have tended to support voluntary incentives for more density but characterized anything stricter as threatening the character of existing communities.
Progressive statehouse Democrats have also turned their attention to policies for renters. In recent years, they鈥檝e unsuccessfully pushed for , made it to push out tenants when their lease ends, forced cities to and made it easier for local governments .
Opponents to those policies argue they put more burdens on landlords, with the risk of pushing smaller landlords in particular into selling, further reducing the supply of affordable rentals.
Republican lawmakers have also focused a lot over recent years on construction defects laws, arguing that the state makes it too easy for condo owners to sue builders over problems, which put a drag on new condo construction. However, efforts to change the liability law have proven .
Both parties have also worked together over the past year to approve , after soaring values led to big spikes in valuations. While those cuts will keep homeowners鈥� tax bills from growing quite so quickly, they are also contributing to for the state.
Local Governments
Housing development policy is largely determined at the local level, and it's an eternally hot topic for local elected officials. That makes your local votes some of the most consequential you take, when it comes to the future of housing in your immediate area.
Through zoning, your local officials control things like minimum lot sizes for homes and determine where developers can construct multi-family buildings, and where they must stick with single-family units. Their voices also carry significant weight when the state considers changes to housing policy.
For residents, zoning policy can often go hand-in-hand with the character of their communities, and large new developments often , slowing down construction time and raising costs. In Steamboat Springs, a plan for 2,300 new, income-controlled units in the town.
In some of Colorado鈥檚 larger, more liberal cities like Denver, local governments have raised funding for affordable housing and been able to increase allowable development densities. But other places, like Fort Collins, have faced fierce to upzoning proposals.
Ballot Measures
Voters in will decide on housing-related ballot measures in this election.
For example, Denver will vote on proposals to
Voters in Montrose, Avon and Mt. Crested Butte will consider increasing taxes on lodging to pay for housing projects and other causes. In Dillon and Snowmass Village, voters will consider whether to approve new workforce housing developments.There is one statewide ballot measure related to housing, Amendment G, which would expand property tax breaks for veterans. Colorado voters did take a major step with affordable housing two years ago when . That measure dedicates $300 million a year to affordable housing efforts around the state.