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Colorado grew on a wave. The wave is gone.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado grew on a wave. The wave is gone.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado crossed six million people in 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Headlines called it a milestone. What they didn't report is how the state got there, and what's left now that the wave behind the growth has receded. The Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 population estimates, released across state, county and municipal data, include a breakdown most coverage did not examine. The growth wasn’t coming from where it used to From 2015 through 2019, Census Bureau historical data shows Colorado averaged roughly 50,000 net migrants a year. Most were Americans who had sized up their options and chose this state. Then it changed. In 2020, Colorado received a net 239 international migrants. By 2024 that figure...
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Frozen in place: How a 1997 tax law may be trapping Colorado’s senior homeowners
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Frozen in place: How a 1997 tax law may be trapping Colorado’s senior homeowners

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice A Centennial resident wrote to RMV earlier this year with a frustration he suspects many of his neighbors share — one shaped by decades spent in the same home. He has watched its value climb far beyond anything he imagined when he bought it. And now, as he weighs whether to downsize, he finds himself facing a tax bill on that appreciation — one shaped by a federal law whose core thresholds haven’t been updated in nearly 30 years. "This realized gain could be used for moving into a more manageable home, pay for necessary home care if needed, help pay for insurance, medical, dental, medicine expenses and keep their quality of life," he wrote. His concern is not an isolated one. It reflects a structural problem — one incr...
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After fire, a new rule: Why one Lakewood property can’t be rebuilt as before
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Lakewood Informer, Approved, Commentary, Local

After fire, a new rule: Why one Lakewood property can’t be rebuilt as before

By Lakewood Informer | Lakewood Informer Subtack When a Lakewood resident bought a burned-out single-family house to rehabilitate it, he had no idea Lakewood would say no. The house had been vacant and neglected, allowing homeless to move in and cause a fire. The result is an unusable, dangerous eyesore. But those considerations were not as important to Lakewood as changing the property to high-density. The new owner thought he would do the neighborhood a favor and fix it up. He had no desire to build high-density and no reason to think he could not replace one single-family home with another. Unfortunately for him, Lakewood has been eliminating single-family zoning for years. During the 2012 rezone, many properties were changed from single-family to multi-use without ...
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Federal audit finds housing benefits paid to 221 deceased recipients in Colorado
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New York Post, Approved, State

Federal audit finds housing benefits paid to 221 deceased recipients in Colorado

By Ryan King | New York Post The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is investigating whether Colorado providers helped nearly 3,000 people swindle taxpayer money from Uncle Sam, The Post has learned. The investigation comes after an internal HUD audit found that benefits were granted to 221 dead people, while another 87 were otherwise ineligible. The department also said that another 2,519 beneficiaries will need to undergo additional verification. “From deceased tenants to individuals receiving HUD housing benefits who were never supposed to, the Department has questions for HUD-supported housing providers in Colorado, and we expect prompt answers and enforcement action,” a HUD spokesperson told The Post. READ THE FULL STORY AT T...
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Colorado’s Housing Crunch Shows Signs of Easing but Costs Still Bite
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Commentary, State

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 o...
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Developers Target Sheridan RV Park, Residents Plead for City to Protect Homes
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kdvr.com, Approved, Local

Developers Target Sheridan RV Park, Residents Plead for City to Protect Homes

By: Anna Coon | KDVR FOX31 SHERIDAN, Colo. (KDVR) — More than 100 people could be forced to leave their homes in Sheridan if a proposed apartment complex project moves forward. An Indiana-based developer, The Garrett Companies, is vying to purchase the current site of Flying Saucer RV Park, a year-round park with more than 150 lots. If the deal closes, the park would be cleared out to make way for new housing. Many of the RV park’s residents have made the location their permanent home. “I just don’t know the answer as to what we would do if we received an eviction notice,” said Steve Ohlfest, who has lived at Flying Saucer RV Park for 20 years. Ohlfest spent 16 years in an RV before upgrading to a tiny home in 2021. “This is our dream home. This is our dream city,” said Ohlf...
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Garfield County uses $4.1 million in private activity bonds for affordable housing solutions
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Post Independent, Approved, Local

Garfield County uses $4.1 million in private activity bonds for affordable housing solutions

By Julianne O’Driscoll | Post Independent Garfield County commissioners voted unanimously Monday to allocate almost $4.1 million in private activity bonds to the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) to support local affordable housing projects. Private activity bonds are tax-exempt loans used to fund private development projects, according to the Colorado Division of Housing. Every year, the Internal Revenue Service assigns each state a private activity bond limit. Colorado then allocates the bonds to cities and counties based on area population. This year, Garfield County received a private activity bond cap of nearly $4.1 million based on a population count of 62,722.  Local governments decide how to use the bonds. Garfield County on Monday authorized the...
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Lone Tree residents push back on 343-home development proposal
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Fox31, Approved, Local

Lone Tree residents push back on 343-home development proposal

By Maddie Rhodes | Fox 31 DENVER (KDVR) — Many locals are worried about open space land after the city of Lone Tree announced a proposal to build hundreds of homes on land west of Interstate 25. The City of Lone Tree Government said staff are currently reviewing a proposal from Brookfield Residential and RidgeGate Investments for the “Mesa Tops” residential project, which would build a 343-home neighborhood on 392 acres of mesa land on the southern edge of Lone Tree.Traffic backs up after 80K pound construction equipment falls on I-25 The city posted the plans on Facebook for a residential project west of I-25. While this plan is currently just a proposal, many locals have already raised some concerns about the potential development in Lone Tree. The city said this project...
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Coloradans Priced Out of Housing as Costs Outpace Earnings
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State, Approved, kdvr.com

Coloradans Priced Out of Housing as Costs Outpace Earnings

By Spencer Kristensen | KDVR Fox 31 DENVER (KDVR) — A report from the Common Sense Institute, a conservative-leaning research organization, revealed that the majority of Colorado residents are being priced out of the opportunity of owning a home. The report called “Colorado’s Housing Affordability Mismatch” was created by CSI’s Chief Economist Steven Byers and states that it analyzes the growing disparity between what Coloradans can afford and what’s actually available in the housing market. The report listed several findings, including: 60% of households in Colorado cannot afford the average home in the state, which is an increase from the 2010 figure of 47% 40% of households can only afford homes under $300,000, which accounts for only 15% of the houses statewide Color...
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Study warns that short-term rentals are pricing out local residents
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The Aspen Times, Approved, State

Study warns that short-term rentals are pricing out local residents

By Robert Tann | The Aspen Times Home prices in Colorado’s mountain resort communities have skyrocketed over the past 13 years, with a new report further detailing the erosion of affordability for working residents.  A study released on Wednesday by the Colorado-based think tank Common Sense Institute shows home prices in seven Western Slope counties — Eagle, Garfield, Grand, Pitkin, Routt, San Miguel and Summit — have more than doubled or, in some cases, tripled since 2012.  The Common Sense Institute researches and promotes free-enterprise economic policy and bills itself as “nonpartisan.” Several of its board members, however, have ties to the Republican Party, and the organization has accepted funds from the conservative advocacy group Advance Colorado. The study bases...
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