Colorado’s Housing Crunch Shows Signs of Easing but Costs Still Bite

By The Gazette Editorial Board | Commentary, The Denver Gazette

The cost of housing has soared in our state in recent years, outpacing income growth and making it especially challenging for lower-wage earners and younger, entry-level workers to afford rent. Buying a place of their own is an even taller task for many.

It all has led to much public debate and, inevitably, hyperventilation by politicians pledging to solve what they have dubbed an affordable-housing “crisis.” The panic also has led to a lot of misfires by policymakers. 

Among those are proposals that would put the squeeze on providers of rental housing, presuming them to have bottomless pockets. Rent control is an example. There also have been various policy prescriptions making it harder to evict tenants. Some of these, notably rent control, haven’t made it into law so far. That’s a good thing because they would backfire on the very renters they purport to help. They would chill investment in the construction of new rental units and the upkeep of existing ones. 

Another offensive launched in the name of affordable housing is a crusade by Gov. Jared Polis and his fellow ruling Democrats in the legislature to force density zoning — more people crammed into less space — on Colorado’s cities. State-imposed changes to local zoning codes, pushed through the legislature by Polis, micromanage matters ranging from the number of housing units per parcel to parking spaces per residence.

The governor’s density agenda not only seems far-fetched as a means of lowering housing costs but also blatantly tramples Colorado’s constitutional and statutory guarantees of local control over zoning. No wonder six Colorado cities have gone to court to stop it.

All that overreach cries out for some perspective.

For starters, our state’s housing crunch appears to be easing somewhat. As our news affiliate Colorado Politics reported last week, Colorado’s housing supply is on the upswing after having reached its worst point in 2019.

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Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.