(The Center Square) – Finding, purchasing and paying for housing in Colorado continues to be a crisis, according to the nonpartisan nonprofit Common Sense Institute.
The organization published in-depth housing studies on Denver, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction on Wednesday. The studies revealed purchasing a home is becoming increasingly difficult, paying an average mortgage takes a larger portion of income, and municipal permitting for new home construction lags behind population growth projections.
“Our housing crisis continues,” Steven Byers, a senior economist with the Common Sense Institute, said in a statement. “Costs are rising for a limited supply and the ability to purchase a home is shrinking for many Coloradans.”
The organization said the housing studies are the first in a series of issue-focused reports examining communities throughout the state.
“In 2023, Coloradans will face municipal elections in some of our most populated cities and we want to make sure voters have the facts to make informed decisions about some of the biggest issues facing those communities,” Kelly Caufield, executive director of the Common Sense Institute, said in a statement.
The reports find:
-In Denver, the affordability rating to purchase a new home has decreased 101% since 2015;
-In Colorado Springs, the number of working hours at the average weekly wage to afford a mortgage increased 76%, from 58 to 102 hours;
-In Grand Junction, with a population of 67,000, permitting for new housing will need to be between 526 and 779 units to meet projected population growth and meet existing demand for housing.
“Recent drops in the levels of permitting in each city indicate a new trend, where there won’t be enough new housing units to meet the needs of the projected population growth and fill the existing gaps and stabilize the market,” Byers said.
Voters approved the creation of a State Affordable Housing Fund in November, which will dedicate 0.1% of state income tax revenue to fund housing programs.
In early January, the State Title Board advanced “Initiative 3.” If it gets enough signatures to go on the November ballot and voters approve, it will create a “community attainable housing fee” of 0.1% on the sale of property exceeding $200,000 and become effective in 2024. The fiscal note estimates it will generate $70 million for attainable housing, defined as the cost to a household not spending more than 30% of its income on housing costs when earning between 80% and 120% of the area median income. The funds would be used only for new and existing programs that support financing, purchase, refinancing, construction, maintenance, rehabilitation, or repair of attainable housing for rental purposes or home ownership.
