Where to find housing on the ballot

Living in Colorado, for many, means spending a lot of time worrying about how to make the rent or the mortgage — or whether they’ll ever be able to buy a home.

Housing costs have been on a long and sometimes sharp climb throughout the state. In Colorado Springs, home prices have risen 119% since 2015, according to the Common Sense Institute. In the Denver area, the average sale price for homes this year is $617,000, up from $304,000 a decade ago.

Rising costs and housing shortages are driving a top concern among more than 7,000 respondents to the Voter Voices survey organized by more than two dozen media outlets in Colorado this year, including The Denver Post. Many identified the cost of living more broadly as a concern, but housing was a recurring topic.

The upward shift in housing costs has been driven by a long-running mismatch in supply and demand as Colorado has grown.

Those trends have hit renters hard, too. Denver’s median monthly rent increased an eye-watering 82% between 2009 and 2021, climbing from $856 a month to $1,554, one of the steepest increases in the country in that period.

If housing costs and development are top concerns for you, here is where your vote has the most impact.

The presidential race

Both candidates have offered ideas to lower housing costs. The president can harness regulatory authority for some moves, while working with Congress to pass larger-scale housing-related legislation, tax breaks and incentives.

The centerpiece of Vice President Kamala Harris’ housing plan is a proposal to help first-time homebuyers with $25,000 in down payment assistance, although critics note that wouldn’t address the shortage of starter homes on the market. Among other proposals, she’s also pitching new tax incentives for builders who focus on affordable housing and wants to double an existing program that supports local governments to pursue “innovative” approaches to affordable housing, bringing funding to $40 billion.

Former President Donald Trump’s housing plan contains fewer specifics. In this campaign, Trump has blamed the recent surge in immigration for higher housing costs and said that his plans for mass deportations will also help bring down rents — a contention economists have disputed, warning it would also likely cut significantly into the construction labor pool needed to build housing.

Trump also has proposed building 10 “Freedom Cities” from the ground up on federal land. While the proposal is light on details, most undeveloped federal land is concentrated in Western states like Colorado.

Congressional races

Many of the housing proposals from the presidential candidates will actually depend on getting Congress to go along.

Colorado’s Republican and Democratic congressional candidates blame different causes — and propose different solutions — to the housing crisis. Republicans tend to blame federal spending for driving inflation, including in the housing sector, and argue for a reduction in construction mandates that they argue drive up the cost of new homes. For their part, Democratic candidates lean into federal funding and tax incentives to support affordable housing construction.

In questionnaires published in its online voter guide, The Denver Post asked congressional candidates what actions they’d support to address concerns about the rising cost of living.

State legislative races

Housing has become a top issue for Colorado’s legislature in recent sessions, from passing property tax relief to efforts by Gov. Jared Polis and many Democratic lawmakers to add new zoning requirements for local governments, in hopes of spurring more density and lowering costs.

Legislative candidates in the election are debating those moves and ideas for further action — as well as limits to what government should do. The Post’s legislative candidate questionnaires in the online voter guide include their responses about what the legislature should do to improve affordability for Coloradans.

Local Governments

Housing development policy, including zoning, is largely determined at the local level, and it’s an eternally hot topic for local elected officials. While many cities don’t have municipal races this year, several metro Denver counties have county commission seats on the ballot.

The Post’s candidate questionnaires in the online voter guide asked these candidates what they would do to improve affordability for their counties’ residents.