Washington, D.C., October 12, 2026 – Colorado is one of the few states in the nation where the housing affordability crisis may show signs of easing, according to the National Housing Conference’s (NHC) report, Priced Out: When a Good Job Isn’t Enough. The annual report examines how the widening gap between wages and housing costs is reshaping affordability for nearly 300 occupations across 390 metropolitan areas.
In 2025, Colorado was one of 10 states where the share of occupations able to afford both homeownership and a two-bedroom rental increased. However, housing remains significantly less affordable than it was five years ago.
From 2024 to 2025, Colorado recorded a 1.98 percentage-point increase in its share of occupations within the state’s metro areas that can afford homeownership and a 1.56 percentage-point increase in its share of occupations that can afford a two-bedroom rental unit. Nineteen such combinations that could not afford to purchase a typically priced home in Colorado in 2024 regained that ability in 2025, with gains occurring across markets including Fort Collins-Loveland, Grand Junction, Greeley and Pueblo.
The slight improvement comes after significant deterioration since 2020. Colorado’s homeownership affordability remains 9.01 percentage points below its 2020 level, while two-bedroom rental affordability is nearly 9 percentage points lower.
“Colorado still faces a serious housing affordability challenge, but the positive change matters,” said David M. Dworkin, President and CEO of NHC. “After years of losing ground, Colorado posted modest gains in both homeownership and rental affordability in 2025. One year does not make a trend, but it shows that affordability can move in the right direction.”
Colorado’s gains stand out amid broader Mountain West affordability losses
Colorado’s improvement is particularly notable because it comes against the backdrop of significant affordability losses across the Mountain West. The Mountain region recorded a nearly 14 percentage-point decline in two-bedroom rental affordability between 2020 and 2025, the second-largest regional decline in the country.
Despite five-year affordability losses, Colorado recorded year-over-year gains in both homeownership and rental affordability in 2025. Within the Mountain region, only Nevada also posted improvement on both measures, and its rental affordability gain was less than a percent.
“Colorado has taken meaningful steps to remove barriers to housing supply at the same time that we are seeing early signs of improved affordability,” said Dworkin. “The task now is to build on this progress by continuing to expand housing supply.”
Despite the recent gains, Colorado has recovered only a fraction of the affordability lost since 2020, underscoring the need for sustained progress in expanding housing supply and bringing costs back into alignment with workers’ incomes.
The research tracked affordability across thousands of combinations of occupations and metropolitan areas — for example, “a registered nurse in Phoenix” or “a teacher in Cleveland.” Nationally, the average annual salary among occupations that lost the ability to purchase was $70,283. The number of metropolitan areas requiring an annual salary above $100,000 to afford a typically priced home rose to 193 in 2025, compared to 30 in 2019.
Renters are also losing ground. In 2025, 45,833 occupation–metro combinations could afford a two-bedroom apartment without being cost burdened, 5,989 fewer than in 2020. Nearly half of the occupation–metro combinations tracked could not afford a two-bedroom rental in 2025, and 38 metropolitan areas required an annual salary above $75,000 to do so.
NHC’s analysis draws on its Paycheck to Paycheck database, which combines occupational wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, typical home values from Zillow, and Fair Market Rents from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The database compares annual wages and housing costs for nearly 300 occupations across 390 metropolitan statistical areas, showing where workers can—and cannot—afford typical housing. To see how rising costs are affecting your community, visit the Paycheck to Paycheck database at www.nhc.org/paycheck-to-paycheck.
NOTE TO EDITORS AND REPORTERS: NHC can provide customized data and analysis for your metropolitan area.
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About the National Housing Conference (NHC): Founded in 1931, the National Housing Conference is the oldest and broadest housing coalition in America. NHC is a diverse continuum of affordable housing stakeholders who convene and collaborate through dialogue, advocacy, research, and education, to develop equitable solutions that serve our common interest—an America where everyone is able to live in a quality, affordable home in a thriving community. Politically diverse and nonpartisan, NHC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. To learn more about NHC, visit www.nhc.org.