Colorado Politics’ Marissa Ventrelli lays it bare: a new Colorado Chamber scorecard says our state is now the third most expensive in the country to live in, with housing affordability ranked the second worst. Chamber CEO Loren Furman calls the rising costs “impossible to overlook” and urges action.
There are a couple of bright spots. CNBC bumped Colorado to 11th for doing business, average posted full-time salaries rose above $57,000, and GDP added more than $25 billion year over year. But the cost side is winning the tug-of-war, and employers keep pointing at the regulatory environment as a prime culprit. The state is the sixth-most regulated, with nearly 200,000 rules and an estimated 45 percent labeled excessive or duplicative.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Third most expensive to live, second worst housing affordability. That is a neon warning sign for families and employers.
- Chamber says costs are crushing growth. Businesses blame red tape, with 200,000 rules and 45 percent tagged duplicative.
- Yes, some wins. GDP up more than $25 billion since 2023 and posted salaries up, but prices keep outrunning paychecks.
- Rankings slip. CNBC puts Colorado 47th on cost of living and U.S. News shows housing affordability falling to 48th. Denver’s average home is near $700,000.
- People feel it. Population growth has slowed sharply from the 2010s as affordability bites across the Front Range.
My Bottom Line
I get tired of writing this, but here we go again. When young people cannot afford to start here and seniors cannot afford to finish here, your state has lost the plot. Governor Gaslight can keep insisting he “made Colorado affordable.” He did not. Government does not make things affordable. Markets do. Government makes things expensive through regulation and overreach, and we are swimming in both.
Credit to the scorecard for a few bright spots. Health metrics look great and the doing-business rank clawed back a little ground. It is not enough. We are still stifled by a legislature addicted to virtue signaling and a stack of rules that drive up the cost of housing, energy, insurance, and everyday life. The scoreboard does not lie.
The fix is not a new task force. The fix is a new direction. Freeze new mandates. Sunset duplicative rules. Audit permits. Stop treating firm energy like a sin. Build homes faster with predictable codes and lower fees. Then get out of the way. If Colorado wants to be livable again, we must vote out the people who made it unaffordable, dramatically reduce regulation, and let the free market breathe. Period.
Source: Colorado Politics
