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Colorado is Dead Last in Housing Affordability in America, According to New Study
The Common Sense Institute ranks Colorado 51st, behind all states and Washington, D.C., in housing competitiveness.
ColoradoBiz Staff //April 3, 2024//
Colorado is Dead Last in Housing Affordability in America, According to New Study
The Common Sense Institute ranks Colorado 51st, behind all states and Washington, D.C., in housing competitiveness.
ColoradoBiz Staff //April 3, 2024//
Housing affordability in Colorado has long been seen as an impediment to attracting and retaining workforce talent as well as new businesses.
Where does Colorado stand compared with other states? Dead last, according to the Common Sense Institute, which ranks Colorado 51st, behind all states and Washington, D.C., in housing competitiveness.
Metrics used by the Greenwood Village-based think tank in its 2024 Housing Competitiveness Index include the number of working hours required to pay a mortgage, taking into account wages (Colorado ranked 48th, at 95.9 hours); hours to pay rent (Colorado ranked 51st, at 86.6 hours); housing shortage or surplus divided by population (Colorado ranked 42nd at -1.83%); and percentage of building permits issued as a share of housing deficit or surplus (Colorado ranked 36th at 46%).
READ: How Modular Construction Could Ease Colorado’s Housing Affordability Crisis
The study on housing is part of the Common Sense Institute’s 2024 Colorado Free Enterprise Report, available online at commonsenseinstituteco.org/2024-free-enterprise-report.
Reasons for the state’s high cost and shortage of housing, according to the think tank, include “long-recognized aspects of the construction-defects law that disincentivize construction of condominiums that often serve as starter homes; restrictive zoning regulations; disparate building codes; high water tap fees; and rising costs of residential insurance.”
