Apartments

When Gov. Jared Polis and Democratic allies sought to overhaul land use rules in the state last year in hopes of spurring more housing development they faced immediate blowback from municipalities intent on protecting their local control. Seeking housing solutions From the mountains to the prairies, Colorado’s housing crisis is squeezing state residents in ways that make drastic choices an all-too-common part of their cost-of-living calculus. Click here to read more from this series. But one Front Range city publicly…

From the mountains to the prairies, Colorado’s housing crisis is squeezing state residents in ways that make drastic choices an all-too-common part of their cost-of-living calculus. Colorado faces a shortfall of 100,000 homes and apartments, the second worst deficit of any state after California, according to a study last year from Up for Growth. A homebuyer misery index from the Common Sense Institute found households in the state’s largest counties facing record-high levels of stress. When The Denver Post put out a call…

Decades ago, Colorado’s mountain communities, struggling with sky-high real estate values, implemented “inclusionary” ordinances that required developers to set aside a share of the units they built at a lower price or lower rent. Aspen, Colorado, consistently tops the list of the most expensive places in the world to live on March 4, 2024. Nestled in the Roaring Fork Valley, Aspen boasts one of the highest concentrations of ultra-expensive real estate globally, intensifying the struggle for affordable housing options…

The studs of Jennifer Miller’s Erie dream home carry in them her family’s hopes for the future, with messages literally inked with permanent marker onto the bedroom beams while the two-story house was under construction in 2019. But the dream home turned into a money pit for the family of four as they tapped savings and equity from their down payment to fix problems she said were caused by rushed construction. The soil under the foundation wasn’t properly prepared, Miller said, causing the house to twist and stretch as…

Colorado suffered the biggest drop in its homeownership rate of any state last year, according to counts from the U.S. Census Bureau. But economists and demographers in the state aren’t buying it. The homeownership rate, a measure of how many households own the place where they live versus renting it, was 69.7% during the fourth quarter of 2022. It moved up to 70.2% in the second quarter of 2023 before plunging to 62.7% in the fourth quarter. No other state came close to matching that 7 percentage point decline last year.…

Since November, Joe and Sarah Webber have searched for a larger home to replace the small bungalow they own near the University of Denver in the Corey-Merrill neighborhood. They want to stay in that part of Denver, with its spacious parks, but doing so will cost them at least $1 million for a basic home large enough to accommodate future kids. They are realizing that $1 million, even $1.2 million, doesn’t buy what it used to, much less what they hoped it could. “We are feeling like prices are high, which we knew. But it…

Conditions are looking up for tenants in metro Denver and Boulder as more new apartments keep rolling into the market, keeping rents in check and providing more options for those looking for housing, according to a quarterly update from the Apartment Association of Metro Denver. The average rent for an apartment in the seven-county metro area, including Boulder, was $1,870 in the fourth quarter, which is down from $1,888 in the third quarter and not much above the average of $1,838 a year earlier. Two years ago, the…

A former Colorado tenant has sued real estate giant Greystar — the nation’s largest apartment management company — over hidden charges and “junk fees” charged for items including pest control and valet trash service. Nichole Collins, a tenant until April in a Lakewood apartment complex called The Hamptons, filed the lawsuit in Denver District Court on Jan. 9. She and her attorneys hope to join forces with other Greystar renters statewide in a class-action case challenging the fees and other billing charges tucked within…

If you’re struggling with mistreatment by a landlord, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office wants you to report it. The state’s attorney general is now able to investigate potential violations of housing laws and to utilize civil and criminal enforcement actions because of a state law that took effect in May 2022. On Tuesday, the Department of Law took action for the first time by reaching a $1 million settlement with Boulder-based Four Star Realty after the property management company illegally charged residents for…

A Front Range property management company has agreed to pay about $1 million to the state after illegally billing tenants for standard apartment services like repairs, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday. Boulder-based Four Star Realty reached the settlement with Attorney General Phil Weiser after an investigation by the Colorado Department of Law exposed multiple instances of the company charging renters for unnecessary work, unrelated damages and other fees not outlined in their leases. The…