Study Says Colorado's Housing Crisis Requires Urgent Action

A new housing development white paper says Colorado is on the cusp of a severe affordable housing crisis and easing construction regulations may be one of the only ways to respond. Common Sense Institute, a nonprofit focused on protecting and promoting Colorado’s economy, released a white paper on Friday co-written by a public housing authority director and a former HUD administrator outlining the impending crisis. The Denver Post reports the state needs 54,190 new housing units built per year for the next five years to cover the deficit and keep up with population growth.

Statewide, the median price of a single-family home sold in May was $520,000, up a stratospheric 25.3% over the past year alone, according to the Colorado Association of Realtors. In metro Denver, the median price of a single-family home sold was at $573,500, also up 25.3%.

“Before the housing crash we weren’t doing that bad of a job,” LiFari said of matching construction with population growth. But that hasn’t been true for a decade now and Lim adds that Colorado has the fourth-worst housing shortage in the country after Washington, D.C., Oregon and California.

LiFari said it is time to acknowledge that the private sector can’t create enough affordable homes on its own and that it needs help from a more assertive public sector, which took a similar role in the post-war period.

That could include donating public lands; waiving existing building, zoning and design standards; and dedicating a significant share of federal funds under the American Rescue Plan to address the housing gap. 

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