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With January behind us, how are your New Year’s resolutions going? Mid-February is typically when gym attendance returns to normal, as people remember how hard it is to maintain healthy habits. But goals aren’t limited to the gym; many make financial planning a part of their resolutions. Whether they want to start a budget, save a little more or spend a little less, healthy financial habits also start to waver around this time of year. Finding the time and discipline to achieve year-long goals is difficult. Many begin…

Unemployment is rising but still historically low, jobs remain plentiful in most industries, wages are up and the economy has withstood blow after blow without rolling over. So why does a sense of gloom pervade about where the economy is at and where it is headed? Blame inflation and high housing costs for the sense of malaise, said Henry Sobanet, chief financial officer and senior vice chancellor for administration and government relations at the Colorado State University Systems, at the 2024 Economic Forecast hosted by…

Hines, a real estate firm with a significant footprint in downtown Denver, remains optimistic about the market, but believes the area is at a tipping point that could lead to a “doom spiral” if concerns about safety and other challenges facing developers aren’t addressed. The global firm’s office in Denver manages about $4 billion in assets and has about 100 employees, said Chris Crawford, who heads the team’s work in Colorado. “We focus on a full suite of products: acquisitions, development and asset management,”…

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.…

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said Wednesday that he is filing a lawsuit seeking to block the $24.6 billion merger of Kroger and Albertsons, the state’s largest grocery store chains, because he believes it would eliminate competition and harm shoppers, workers and suppliers. Weiser joins Bob Ferguson, attorney general for Washington state, who filed a lawsuit in January that said the consolidation of the two large supermarkets would severely limit options for shoppers and eliminate competition that helps keep…

Four years after an overhaul of Colorado’s oil and gas rules that was meant to cool conflicts over drilling, a draft bill that would phase out new permits for wells is running up the temperature. Fanning the heat even more are ballot proposals that could restrict efforts to boost renewable energy. Gov. Jared Polis said he hoped a law approved in 2019 would end the state’s “oil and gas wars” by tightening regulations and putting protection of public health and the environment front and center. But growing concerns about…

Price decreases at the pump and on used car lots helped push consumer inflation lower in metro Denver the past two months and bring it more in line with the national average last month. The Consumer Price Index for Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, which is measured every two months, dropped 0.1% between November and January, following a 0.34% decline between September and November, according to an update Tuesday from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The month-over-month declines are helping push the annual rate lower. That…

Colorado, accustomed to having one of the strongest rates of job growth of any state most years, found itself in an unfamiliar position last year of having one of the weakest in the country. Colorado’s 0.8% gain in nonfarm jobs, representing a gain of 24,100 positions between December 2022 and December 2023, ranked sixth lowest among states, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Mississippi had the only decline in the U.S. at 0.7%, representing a net loss of 7,800 jobs last year. Rhode Island saw a 0.4% gain,…

Frontier Airlines is offering an all-you-can-fly summer pass for $399 for a limited time, the Denver-based carrier said Wednesday. The “Go Wild!” pass offers access to all of Frontier’s U.S. and international destinations from May 1 to Sept. 30. The promotion applies to destinations across the continental U.S., Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and Latin America, said James Fenner, Frontier Airlines’ vice president of pricing and revenue management. The pass is “a great fit” for people who can be flexible with their travel…

Nearly 16 months after announcing a $24.6 billion merger, grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons continue to sell their plan to federal and state regulators, workers and customers. Union members are pushing back against the transaction with the public and policymakers. And analysts don’t see the merger as a done deal. A consultant with the financial services company Solomon Partners told reporters during a call last week that the merger between Kroger, which owns and operates King Soopers and City Market stores in Colorado,…