Housing

How 25 years of housing decisions boxed Colorado into a corner

Twenty-five years ago, Erie was just another small town on the Front Range, the kind of place you only thought about if you lived there. Scattered farmhouses sat under an endless sky, and families were happy to call the place their home. Then, developers saw money signs and started building houses, strip malls. The traffic followed.  Enough traffic to make any of these poor farmers lose it.

Now, Erie is one of the fastest-growing towns in Colorado, growing more than 9% in the last year. Over the last 20 years, it became a haven for families priced out of Boulder and Denver. These families are chasing the American dream of a backyard, good schools, and a reasonable commute. For that, you have to live close to where you work. Developers saw opportunity, and they took it. They built mile after mile of single-family homes stretching toward the horizon, the old farm roads now feeding into packed intersections and six-lane highways.

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Perceptions of downtown Denver plummet despite $1.2B in investment

City leaders have stressed downtown Denver has several things going in its favor — reopening of 16th Street Mall, new businesses moving in, stronger police presence and $570 million of investment money.

Despite efforts to make a comeback, optimism fell among the public last year.

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In rural school districts, creative solutions to house teachers being created

From Deer Creek School District on the far Eastern Plains to Rangely on the western border of Utah, from Telluride and Aspen to Vail and Steamboat Springs, school districts all over rural Colorado are struggling with a need for affordable and available housing for teachers.

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