The snapshot report, which reflects how many people were homeless on a single night in January, shows that overall homelessness increased 12% over the 2024 count. But unsheltered homelessness — meaning people who are sleeping in tents or on the street — decreased 38%.

“We set this crazy, ambitious goal to end street homelessness in (my) first term,” said Mayor Mike Johnston. “And to be almost halfway there, almost halfway through term 1, I think reaffirms that’s not an impossible dream.”

A Denver-produced analysis of other cities’ point-in-time counts suggests the decline is the greatest multiyear reduction in unsheltered homelessness in U.S. history, Johnston said. Since the January 2023 count, which found 1,423 people living on the city’s streets, the unsheltered count has decreased 45%.

Johnston and his team downplayed the overall increase in homelessness, including by saying in a briefing document that it is “still increasing but leveling off” — despite a 12.5% increase this year, following a 12.4% increase in 2024. But they say the report proves their approach is working.

“People who are by far at the greatest health and safety risk in the city are folks who are living on the streets,” Johnston said. “It’s also what impacts the city most.”

During the 2024 point-in-time count, 1,273 people were unsheltered. And in January, there were just 785 counted in the city. That’s fewer than any other city that has reported in its point-in-time data, said Cole Chandler, the deputy director of Johnston’s city homelessness initiative.

In its new report, the MDHI counted 7,327 total people who were homeless in Denver this year, according to the data. Last year it was 6,539. The increase showed the continuing impact of the housing affordability challenge.

Cathy Alderman with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless said she was encouraged by the decrease in street homelessness but disappointed that overall figures were still growing.

“The fact that chronic homelessness continues to increase year over year illustrates the stark reality that people are staying in the cycle of homelessness longer, because there are no long-term affordable housing options available to them,” said Alderman, the coalition’s chief communications and public policy officer.

MDHI also compiles data for the seven-county metro. There were 10,774 homeless people total across those counties this year, according to the data, up from 9,997, or a nearly 8% increase. That followed a 10% increase reported last year.

Under Johnston, who ran on addressing homelessness in Denver in the 2023 election, Denver — which deals with the bulk of the homelessness challenge — has added about 1,000 shelter beds, bringing the total count to about 3,000. Under the All In Mile High initiative, it opened several former hotels as shelters and added a handful of tiny home micro-communities as the city moved inhabitants of street encampments indoors.

The city doesn’t plan on expanding its shelter bed capacity further, Chandler said. Instead, officials will work on getting more people into permanent housing, he said.

“We’re at the point in our strategy where we’re really focused on how do we get those folks … into permanent housing?” Chandler said.

That could be a difficult task if the city loses federal housing vouchers, which helps house low-income individuals and families, as the Trump Administration is proposing cuts to the program.

Denver will have to explore creative ways to expand its affordable housing options, Johnston said. That could include converting commercial properties to residential, allowing private development on public land and offering tax incentives to builders.

He called that effort “the next frontier” for the city.

Johnston’s administration will also use rapid-rehousing programs, which can include rent subsidies, to help low-income people get into short- or medium-term housing.

Beyond the federal headwinds, the state and city are also facing budget crunches.

Johnston announced mandatory furloughs for city employees last month and said there will be layoffs and budget cuts coming soon. He added that while his homelessness initiative will face cuts, they’re likely to be less substantial than for other programs.

“I don’t think we will see a major challenge in terms of our homelessness system this year,” Chandler said. “Looking forward, it’s really about: How do we establish efficiencies and make sure we have the best structure for long term?”

The initiative costs the city about $58 million each year.

In releasing its report, the MDHI says the rate that homelessness is growing appears to be slowing. There are also fewer “newly homeless” individuals, according to a news release from the organization, adding to the bright spot of the drop in unsheltered homelessness.

“The 2025 PIT count data reinforces what we already know: When we invest in coordinated, evidence-based solutions and work together across systems, we see measurable results,” said Jason Johnson, the MDHI’s executive director, in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires that cities conduct the point-in-time count each year.

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In reality, the city’s trouble has been bubbling for years. Johnston, who took office in mid-2023, has been bracing for big budget changes since at least 2024.

As early as last September, he was advising a conservative approach for the 2025 budget in remarks to the City Council — and warning that “we have to look at more significantly slowing or stopping the growth of government.”

The choked budget can be explained with three quick facts: For years, the city’s expenses have grown. Its main source of revenue hasn’t. And the city’s savings account is running low.

In Denver’s 2024 and 2025 budgets, the Johnston administration chose to cut into the city’s savings more than what’s recommended. Over the last decade, under Johnston and former Mayor Michael Hancock, the city added about 4,000 employees and expanded both programs and the purview of city government. And as those expenses grew, residents stopped spending as much as they once did on things like restaurants and visits downtown, causing sales tax revenue to flatten.

Now the city has $50 million to make up for this year and an estimated $200 million gap in 2026. The mayor is set to require furloughs and layoffs, and officials are considering whether they will need to cut or reduce programs.

More decisions about exactly how many layoffs to order and other cost-saving measures are expected in the coming months, as officials write the 2026 budget. The mayor typically unveils his proposed budget for the next year in mid-September, and the council approves the final version in November.

For Councilman Kevin Flynn, the budget situation and the low city reserves are “kind of frightening.”

“If we could retrospectively reduce spending money that we’ve already spent and claw it back, that would be great,” said Flynn, who has been on the council since 2015. “But we can’t do that.”

Rising costs have mounted

One of the biggest impacts on Denver’s budget has come from the growth in both personnel and contract costs. The general fund, which pays mostly for personnel and day-to-day operations, shot up 83% between 2012 and 2022, Johnston said in a recent interview with The Denver Post.

In November, the council approved a $4.4 billion overall budget for 2025, with $1.76 billion in general fund spending.

As Denver has hired more people to accommodate demand for services by the growing city population, those employees’ compensation has also increased. There are now nearly 15,000 city employees, representing about $1.2 billion in costs in 2025.

Meanwhile, city contracting costs have also become broader in scope and more expensive with inflation, growing about 70% since 2012.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the city received hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government through the American Rescue Plan Act. Officials used some of it on new projects, like opening shelters for Johnston’s All in Mile High initiative and, earlier, a rent-assistance program.

Once those grant dollars dried up, Johnston’s administration decided to continue the projects.

The mayor has also used general fund dollars to pay for things like migrant and homeless services. Between 2022 and 2024, migrant sheltering and services cost the city about $95 million, putting pressure on the budget. Denver expected to receive about $32 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to offset that cost and is now in a legal battle with the Trump administration over the money.

The ongoing homelessness initiative, which Johnston singles out as one of his top priorities, costs about $57 million annually, including to run shelters in large hotels. Johnston said that while he expects cuts to that program, it’s likely to be less impacted than other budget items. Reducing homelessness is an investment in the city’s economy, he said.

“Homelessness was the reason I ran for mayor,” Johnston said. “It was the single most important issue in the city and we’re making dramatic impact on actually resolving this issue.”

Johnston’s critics have challenged the idea that the budget crisis was unavoidable. Lisa Calderón, who ran for mayor in 2023 and came in third, said she believes Johnston’s administration should have been more conservative with the budget.

“There is not a culture where you can speak up and say, ‘I think we are misspending, overspending money,’ ” she said.

Johnston defends his team’s choices, saying his advisers did take action once revenues started slowing. But they couldn’t have predicted the worsening conditions, he said. In the 2025 budget, the city left about 200 positions vacant to help decrease payroll costs.

A closer look at the ‘rainy day fund’

Denver has a target of having 15% of what it spends each year on operations set aside as savings. In 2024, that was about $260 million.

Under Johnston and Hancock’s administrations, it became a common practice to use any dollars above that margin to balance the budget.

The city’s financial guidelines say that fund should be used only to pay for one-time expenses. But over the years, as the stockpile continued to grow, city leaders began using it for ongoing payments, said Stephanie Adams, who was a city budget director during Hancock’s administration and now serves as the deputy chief financial officer.

In the past two years, the city’s budget writers chose to let the rainy day fund slip below that recommended level. It now sits closer to 11%, with about $202 million remaining.

With revenue growth slowing in recent years, something has to change to keep it from falling even lower, Adams said.

“I think there was a little bit of us thinking, and hoping, this was a bit of an anomaly,” Adams said in a recent interview.

When explaining the decision to go below 15% to the council last September, Budget Director Justin Sykes said Denver would have had to cut its expenditures significantly to stay at that recommended level.

“This was something that was reached based on the weighing of those tradeoffs,” he said at the time.

The hope was that sales tax revenue would rebound and the city would be able to refill its savings account. Instead, revenue further flattened. In 2022, sales tax revenue grew by 9%. In 2024, it was only 2%.

Denver’s income growth slows

Slightly more than half of the city’s expenses are paid for with revenue from Denver’s 5.15% sales tax rate, part of the effective 9.15% sales tax paid on purchases in the city.

The growth in that source of income has tapered off in recent years — something city officials attribute to decreases in consumer confidence. An index produced by the market research firm Ipsos shows that after a surge in consumer confidence following the COVID-19 pandemic, buyers’ sentiments have mostly sagged since 2021.

But nationwide spending habits aren’t the only factor. Denver’s struggling city center is also contributing to a sluggish income. Downtown, which represents only 1.8% of Denver’s land, once brought in 13% of the city’s property and sales tax revenues, according to the Downtown Denver Partnership.

Now, that share is closer to 8%.

The area has struggled to attract the same amount of foot traffic as office space has remained empty in the wake of the pandemic, while construction on the 16th Street mall has dragged on and perceptions of unsafe conditions have lingered. Johnston hopes the reopening of 16th Street — with a rebrand dropping “Mall” from its name — and investments in public safety will reinvigorate the area.

That’s indicative of Johnston’s overall plan to move the city through the crisis.

After making cuts to city expenditures, the mayor wants to move full steam ahead on capital projects like the National Women’s Soccer League stadium, more expansion at the National Western Center and an $800 million bond proposal for voters. Denver pays for capital projects with another section of the budget separate from the general fund.

“For us, there are only two solutions to this. One is, you have to cut costs,” Johnston said in an interview last month, “and the second is, you have to increase revenue. You have to grow your way out of this.”

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The 11 vetoed bills touched on a raft of issues: social media regulations, new rules for ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft, criminal justice reforms, health care, the Colorado Open Records Act and several more.

Some, such as his veto of a bill that would have made it easier for unions to negotiate dues, were telegraphed well ahead of time.

Others surprised the bill sponsors, chiefly a proposed ban on surprise charges from ambulance rides — a proposal that had passed both the House and Senate unanimously. Supporters of the bill believe it is the first time a governor has vetoed a bill that had no votes against it. 

Sponsors were hesitant to read much into Polis’ slightly more frequent use of his veto pen than in prior years. The 11 vetoes — up from Polis’ previous high of 10 in 2023 — nonetheless underscored the adage that every bill must pass by clear threshold to become law: 33 votes in the House, 18 votes in the Senate and one vote from the governor’s office.

During a news conference near the end of the signing period following the 2025 session, which officially ended Friday, Polis said he reviews each bill individually before determining if “it’s in the best interest of Colorado.”

The vetoes don’t mean the ideas behind the bills are totally dead, Polis said. He cited one law he signed this year regarding heating, ventilation and air conditioning in schools and another to combat wage theft that arose from bills he vetoed last year. Lawmakers tried again, winning his approval.

Colorado’s recent governors have reached for their veto pen to varying extents. Polis’ predecessor, now-U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, did so less often — in part because split control of the legislature’s chambers at times kept partisan measures from reaching the Democrat’s desk. His single-year record was nine vetoes, during his final year in office in 2018.

But Gov. Bill Owens vetoed bills more often, especially during the Republican’s second term after Democrats won majorities in both legislative chambers. He vetoed nearly four dozen bills in 2005 and, the next year, he vetoed 18 bills in a single day.

Is Polis ‘out of step’ with Democrats?

This year, Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat, saw Polis veto three of the bills he sponsored, the most of any individual lawmaker.

Senate Bill 5 was aimed at making it easier for unions to negotiate dues. House Bill 1004 sought to ban the use of algorithms by landlords to, in effect, coordinate rent prices. And House Bill 1147 would have prevented local governments from instituting harsher penalties than state sentencing guidelines. 

Mabrey chalked up Polis’ high veto total as a response to what lawmakers passed, rather than some change in how the governor approaches veto power in his second-to-last session as the state’s chief executive. Polis, who is term-limited, will leave office after the 2026 session. Democrats will have controlled both legislative chambers throughout his tenure.

But, Mabrey said, “each of the bills of mine that he vetoed were targeted to help people who are poor and struggling.” The vetoes, to him, show Polis is “out of step with the mainstream of his party.” In particular, he cited Polis’ veto of the union bill.

Nationally, Democrats have been ceding union support to Republicans, a loss that proved pivotal to President Donald Trump’s election in November.

The 2024 election results should be a “five-alarm fire” for Democrats, showing they need to show they support the working class, Mabrey said.

“Democrats in the legislature did step up, but the governor prevented us from standing on the side of working people in that fight,” Mabrey said.

Kelly Caufield, the executive director of the Common Sense Institute, a nonpartisan, free enterprise-oriented think tank, said she saw in Polis’ vetoes a focus on the broader economy and secondary effects of some of the bills.

On the union bill, for example, a CSI study found that the most union-friendly states tend to have a higher cost of living, biting into union workers’ higher wages, and higher youth unemployment.

“The through line, for me, is (that) the governor is focused on the data, facts and economic consequences in a state where we’re seeing a decline in overall competitiveness,” Caufield said.

Polis has made affordability central to his administration, even if his definition of it may differ from some in the legislature. In his veto of the union bill, for example, Polis said he is “pro-union, pro-worker and (has) worked throughout my career in public service to protect the right of workers to organize.”

But, he wrote in the veto letter, there should be “a high bar” to set mandatory dues for union shops, “particularly at a time when hardworking Coloradans are concerned about the cost of groceries, the economy, and their job security.”

His veto on that bill was also cheered by business groups.

Loren Furman, the president and CEO of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement that the bill would have “threatened our statewide business climate at a time when we should be fostering a competitive economy,” and the veto “preserves the unique labor laws that set us apart from other states.”

Veto leaves sponsor ‘incredibly disappointed’

Polis’ concerns about direct costs also resulted in perhaps the most surprising veto of the year: House Bill 1088.

The bill sought to eliminate so-called surprise billing when a person with health insurance is transported in an ambulance and gets charged because the emergency service wasn’t part of their network. It faced no opposition among lawmakers.

Rep. Karen McCormick, a Longmont Democrat and sponsor of the bill, said she hadn’t gotten any indication the governor would veto the measure. She recalled reaching out to the governor’s team at the end of April, before the bill’s final votes, and not hearing back on any suggested amendments. The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on that timeline.

Polis’ May 29 veto left her “surprised, incredibly disappointed (and) confused.”

“The folks who vote no on everything voted yes on this,” McCormick said in an interview. “I’m still kind of shocked about that. That lets you know this was a sensible consumer protection, non-cost-raising measure. This, to me, kind of fits right in on the governor’s mission of saving people money on health care.” 

In his veto letter, Polis wrote he worried about potential premium increases of 73 cents to $2.15 per person per month on a health insurance plan.

“A family of four would likely pay as much as one hundred dollars more per year in insurance premiums if I were to sign this bill; by every estimate, this bill raises costs for consumers,” Polis wrote. He also said the bill had “several drafting issues that render it unimplementable in its current form.”

McCormick disputed both counts.

Several other states, including some on the opposite side of the political spectrum like Texas and Oklahoma, have implemented the change without meaningful changes in insurance costs as a result, she said. And lawmakers have worked on the issue for two years, with legislative lawyers reviewing bill language along the way.

McCormick said she had asked for evidence that the bill would drive costs higher and was told Polis heard it from health insurance companies, like Anthem and UnitedHealth Group, and the Colorado Association of Health Plans, an industry group.

Kevin M. McFatridge, the trade group’s executive director, said in a statement that his members “appreciated” the veto. 

“Our members’ priority is to maintain affordability for their customers,” McFatridge wrote. “This bill would have mandated drastic price increases for ground ambulance services which would have led to higher healthcare costs for Coloradans.”

He added that the bill would have put enforcement under the Colorado Department of Insurance, which does not have jurisdiction over group ambulance providers.

But he, like Polis, said the industry wants to continue working on the issue.

McCormick, having run bills aimed at eliminating surprise billing the past two years, said she planned to file the bill again next year — after she takes a breath and tries to understand better why this attempt was vetoed.

“I guess the people of Colorado are just going to have to wait,” McCormick said. “This would have helped their finances and made it so folks weren’t scared of calling 911.”

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That is nearly 50% higher than the 9,159 listings available a year ago and 6.5 times the tight 2,075 listings available in May 2021, which marked a record low for that month.

“Right now, the Denver Metro housing market is a master class in patience,” said Amanda Snitker, chairwoman of the DMAR Market Trends Committee and a local Realtor, in comments accompanying the monthly report. “Whether you’re a buyer waiting for the right home to hit the market or a seller holding out for the best offer, today’s conditions reward those who can pause, plan and stay engaged.”

There were 7,284 new listings in May, a 4.5% increase from a year earlier. That isn’t a big jump, but the backlog has been gradually building. In the first five months, sellers listed 29,881 homes and condos, up 17.5% from the same period in 2024, according to the report.

Although buyers and their agents have long pleaded for more supply. Now that it has arrived, sales are not keeping pace, a reflection of elevated prices and mortgage rates. The 4,036 homes that sold in the metro area last month represent a 2.6% decline from April and a 9.5% decline from May 2024. As long as new listings continue to outpace closings, the inventory will continue to back up, putting pressure on sellers.

“As more homes enter the market and fewer are closing, we’re seeing a build-up of active listings rolling into the next month,” Snitker said. “This is where strategy and staying power come into play. Sellers need to be mindful of how their home is positioned — while buyers may finally have more room to breathe.”

Inventory levels are moving closer to historical averages, which for May is 14,510 listings in DMAR records going back to 1985. Listings are taking a median of 13 days to go under contract, which isn’t as fast as the pace seen a few years ago, but isn’t sluggish either.

When inventories were super-tight in 2021 and early 2022, prices soared. Reversing that logic, will prices start falling now that the market appears to be saturated with a surplus?

It isn’t happening yet, but Seattle-based real estate brokerage firm Redfin argues it is a matter of when, not if. The median price of a detached or stand-alone home sold in May in metro Denver was $665,000, up 0.76% from April and 1.5% over the past year, according to DMAR. For condos and townhomes, the median price was $405,000, up 4.5% from April and down 0.25% from May 2024.

Redfin estimates that sellers nationally were sitting on $698 billion in unsold inventory at the end of April, of which $331 billion had been waiting 60 days or more to reach the closing table. That excess supply is due to there being about 500,000 more home sellers than buyers in the current housing market, with sellers outnumbering buyers by a 42% margin in metro Denver.

“A huge pop of listings hit the market at the start of spring, and there weren’t enough buyers to go around,” said Matt Purdy, a Redfin Premier agent in Denver, in a release. “House hunters are only buying if they absolutely have to, and even serious buyers are backing out of contracts more than they used to. Buyers have a window to get a deal; there’s still a surplus of inventory on the market, with sellers facing reality and willing to negotiate prices down.”

The 9-4 vote came after weeks of delays over the proposal as some advocates in the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood objected to the deal, which is expected to cost about $800 million when financing is factored in.

“I believe there is a win, and a win for everyone in (the community),” said Councilman Darrell Watson, who represents the neighborhood and voted in favor.

He said he will continue to work on gathering more money for the community from the project. Community advocates have said the city and its partners should agree to an additional $16 million lump sum for the community investment fund, beyond an estimated $22 million they’ve already committed to contribute over the next 35 years.

At the council’s May 19 meeting, seven council members voted to postpone the decision for two weeks to allow community advocates to further analyze the agreement and try to negotiate for additional investment. But representatives of the National Western Center Authority, which operates the campus and its new buildings, said during the meeting that their existing agreement was unlikely to change in the meantime.

The community advocates and the authority didn’t reach any new agreements during that period.

During the public comment portion of Monday’s meeting, several Elyria-Swansea residents spoke about the vote, some in support and some opposed. Those in favor of the expansion said they believed it would make their neighborhood feel safer and bring jobs to the area. Other speakers urged the council to vote against the project so that advocates could negotiate for more community benefits.

Four council members who previously voted for the postponement were in support of the project Monday night.

Council members Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, Sarah Parady, Jamie Torres and Shontel Lewis voted no on the project deal.

Mayor Mike Johnston celebrated the decision in a news release after the vote.

“There is no more cherished tradition in Denver than the Stock Show,” he said. “Today, we are further committing to carrying that feeling throughout the rest of the year with events, entertainment, and a renewed dedication to putting people to work and improving the lives of neighbors through sustained — and lasting — trust and partnership.”

The project plan includes an equestrian center, a stable, a hotel, workforce housing and parking. The expansion of the National Western Center has been underway since 2019, with plans going back more than a decade.

The new project is a public-private partnership between the city and the National Western Center Authority. The developer is Community Activation Partners, which is made up of multiple contractors including Fengate Asset Management, Hensel Phelps Construction, McWhinney Real Estate and Sage Hospitality.

The authority said it had agreed to provide several community benefits, including a 4,000-square-foot community center and five acres of open space on the property. It also plans to set aside 1% of all hotel fees to go toward the community investment fund and will offer all event attendees the ability to round up their purchases to donate to it.

The fund is intended to be used for anti-displacement measures for residents in the community.

The project, which is set to cost $400 million and be financed over 35 years, will be paid for using proceeds from a 2015 voter-approved measure that permanently extended taxes on hotels and car rentals to support the National Western Center.

Construction is set to being this fall, with a completion goal of 2028.

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Like many moderate-income workers, public school teachers Julia and Scott Whitnall didn’t think they’d become homeowners in their early 30s. Especially in California.

“We never felt homeownership was in our cards. But we did it!” Julia Whitnall said. “We’re extremely happy.”

The couple moved May 16 to a $509,000 two-bedroom house in Ripon, east of San Francisco in the Central Valley region.

It wasn’t easy. Despite a relatively high combined income of $140,000 from their nearby jobs, they had to compromise on size and take on extra work at summer camps to pull it off. Then they had to exercise patience as the sellers struggled to find a new home.

High interest rates and high prices in a still-competitive housing market continue to make it tough for first-time buyers, even those with good but moderate incomes.

On a national level, households making $75,000 to $100,000 — typical of teachers, nurses and skilled trades workers in many states — face a daunting lack of homes they can afford. That’s according to new research by the National Association of Realtors and Realtor.com based on listings in March of this year compared with 2024. However, the numbers showed an encouraging 20% increase in homes for sale, affordable or not.

Despite more houses for sale, those moderate-income buyers — which the report called “middle- and upper-middle-income buyers” — are much more hard-pressed to find an affordable home than they were in 2019, when almost half the homes on the market were affordable to them. This year they can afford only 21.2% of homes on the market — a slight improvement compared with 20.8% in 2024, according to the report.

It also found that a few states are improving in affordability for people in the $75,000-to-$100,000 income range. But many states are not.

The largest affordability gaps are in California, Hawaii, Idaho, Massachusetts and Montana, where such households can afford fewer than 12% of houses on the market. By contrast, they could afford about half the houses for sale in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and West Virginia.

There’s progress in states that are adding more housing at moderate price points: Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida and Utah, according to the Realtors report.

Balanced markets

Nationwide, to get home markets back in line with moderate-income families, the United States needs 416,000 more homes for sale at or below $255,000, according to the report.

“In many places, we’re still seeing a huge mismatch between income levels and what’s available to buy for moderate-income families,” said Nadia Evangelou, the National Association of Realtors’ senior economist and director of real estate research.

“We are no longer in crisis mode, but we are still very far from where we need to be. We can’t fix it overnight. It will take years,” Evangelou said.

Heather, who asked not to share her last name for privacy reasons, said she can’t even think of buying a house near her job on Long Island, New York. She makes more than $100,000 as a registered nurse and her family makes $170,000 with her husband’s job in building maintenance. But $4,400 in rent and $2,000 in monthly day care costs for three children have them living paycheck to paycheck.

“We can’t even afford a small car repair, let alone a mortgage in our hometown” of Ronkonkoma in Suffolk County, Heather said. Their jobs exposed her and her husband to risks in the pandemic that her neighbors avoided with remote work, she said. But she now feels like she’s in worse shape financially than she was in 2019 and considers moving away.

“All of our hard work feels like it was for nothing,” Heather said. “It’s disheartening that we can’t afford to live where we grew up, but that’s the reality we are facing.”

Some states can still be a refuge of affordability.

Ashley and Tristan Jonas bought a $252,000 house in northwest Ohio after three years of getting shut out by higher or all-cash offers. Ashley Jonas, 32, trained as a teacher but now works in skilled trades as a project coordinator for a countertop company, and the couple makes about $140,000 with Tristan Jonas’ job as a computer programmer.

“We happened to hit the market at the right time in 2025,” Ashley Jonas said. “We bid on this house just as [President Donald] Trump was announcing tariffs. I think a lot of people were holding their coin purses. We weren’t.”

Help for teachers

Teachers, who generally make less than nurses or trades workers, are particularly squeezed. Some states, facing teacher shortages in local schools, are working to raise pay. And increasingly, some schools and hospitals are providing housing to lure more teachers and nurses.

“We lose so many teachers because they can’t find housing here,” said Autumn Rivera, a 20-year teaching veteran and 2022 Colorado Teacher of the Year. Despite her experience and credentials, Rivera said she can’t contemplate buying even a townhouse in the rural resort town of Glenwood Springs, where she teaches.

Prices for those townhouses now start in the $700,000 range, more than twice what they were when she last considered buying in 2019. Rivera feels lucky to have a reasonable rent by sharing a home with its owner, but many teachers in her Roaring Fork Schools need the 117 apartments provided by the district with affordable rent, she said. The district hopes the apartments will allow teachers to save up for a home; it has also built 14 houses for staff with Habitat for Humanity and Holy Cross Energy.

One way to make homebuying more feasible for teachers is to pay them more — a strategy that paid off for New Mexico, one of the few bright spots in a different report on teachers’ inability to afford housing, which was published this month by the National Council on Teacher Quality, a research and advocacy group.

Beginning teachers in Albuquerque saw a 60% increase in pay between 2019 and 2025, which fell just short of a 65% jump in home prices, according to the report. The report credited a state law that raised teacher salaries, including starting pay, by $10,000.

“We’re dealing with the issue of teachers being able to live in the communities where they’re actually working,” said state Rep. Joy Garratt, a Democrat who sponsored a new law, signed in April, that sets higher minimum salaries for teachers effective July 1.

Detroit schools also gave teachers with advanced degrees a pay boost of up to 50% since 2019, about the same increase as home prices, according to the report from the National Council on Teacher Quality. Albuquerque and Detroit are on the report’s list of most affordable places for beginning teachers to live.

But nationally, on average, experienced teachers who started in 2019 are less able to afford a home now than when they began, according to the report.

“Teacher pay has gone up 24% in the last five years, which some might say is solid growth, and yet the increase in house for purchase has gone up 47%,” said Heather Peske, the organization’s president.

“Housing prices are critical to being able to attract and keep great teachers,” Peske said. “People will be leaving the profession trying to find something that pays enough for housing. And bottom line, kids won’t get as good an education.”

Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson@stateline.org.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Standing 30 feet tall and weighing 22,000 pounds, the Denargo Rhino is the first piece of public art to arrive on the site.

“Before full buildout of the entire 17-acre site, we want people to feel like Denargo Market is a destination worth visiting,” said Sean Campbell, CEO of FORMATIV.

“The rhino is our first big step in prioritizing public elements for Denverites to interact with. Whether you’re climbing its sides, snapping a photo, or exploring our new parks and river activation, the rhino will welcome you to Denargo Market as a landmark that will be enjoyed for generations to come.”

Constructed from weatherized steel, the rhino features all-weather climbable panels, custom paint, lighting and surrounding elements like birdhouses.

The climbable statue, which won’t actually be climbable until later this summer, was envisioned by Denargo’s landscape architect Sasaki, in collaboration with developers Golub & Co. and FORMATIV.

It was brought to life by area fabricators JunoWorks and Eldorado Climbing Walls, with engineering support by Craft Engineering Studio.

While impressive, the Denargo Rhino is really just a baby compared to “Blucifer,” the 32-foot-tall blue mustang sporting red glowing eyes near Denver International Airport, and the 40-foot blue bear sculpture that peers into the convention center.

Online Reddit users have already welcomed the Rhino as one of the area’s apex predators, though some have questioned why it isn’t painted all blue to match its fellow titans. Golub & Co. and FORMATIV  have launched a public naming campaign for the towering rhino sculpture.

As part of the “Name the Rhino” campaign, the public is invited to submit name ideas through Thursday, June 5.

Finalists will be selected shortly after, and the public will have a chance to vote on their favorites with the winning name announced during an unveiling event with Denver City Councilman Darrell Watson on June 12.

“We’re so excited to invite the community to be part of this story and help us give this iconic rhino a name that reflects the character and creativity of Denver,” said Laura Newman, vice president of investment & development at Golub & Co.

“Our goal with both the rhino and the public realm was to create a true sense of place here at Denargo Market, and we hope this becomes a beloved landmark for neighbors, families and visitors.”

Spread across the South Platte riverfront just north of Downtown Denver, Denargo Market is zoned to offer 3 million square feet of development, including residential, retail, office and hospitality spaces, public art and more.

The site will also feature over 1,000 for-rent residential units and 4 acres of public open spaces, anchored by sport courts, nature-based play, community gardens and a revitalized dog park.

Construction of infrastructure and public parks began in September 2023. Since then, the project has completed a 56-unit affordable housing community, the sport courts and the dog park, according to a project brochure.

By the third quarter of this year, 4 acres of public realm improvements, including art installations and community spaces, will be completed.

To date, $190 million has been invested in the development, generating an estimated $50 million in revenue for the City and County of Denver during construction.

The site was formerly home to Denver’s largest food market, housing more than 500 grower stands. However, in July 1971, a four-alarm fire destroyed the market and the site became largely industrial and vacant.

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Nationally, there were an estimated 1.9 million home sellers in the U.S. housing market and an estimated 1.5 million homebuyers in April, according to Redfin, which works out to a 33.7% advantage to buyers. Metro Denver had 16,357 sellers active in April, compared to 11,526 buyers, giving Denver a 42% ratio in favor of buyers.

Nationally, 32 markets of the 50 examined were in the buyer’s camp. Denver ranked 19th, sandwiched between Los Angeles and Anaheim.

“At no other point in records dating back to 2013 have sellers outnumbered buyers by this large of a number or percentage. A year ago, sellers outnumbered buyers by just 6.5%, and two years ago, buyers outnumbered sellers,” noted Lily Katz and Asad Khan, authors of the report.

Cooper Thayer, a Realtor with The Thayer Group Keller Williams Action Realty in Castle Rock, said May’s numbers will provide more clarity when they come out in early June, but added he would “definitely agree” that metro Denver is now a buyer’s market.

“The ratio of buyers to sellers is skewed, and with more listings on the market, the smaller buyer pool holds even more leverage as sellers compete for attention,” he said in an email.

Sellers face the most pressure in southern Florida. In Miami, sellers outnumber buyers three-to-one, and West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale aren’t too far behind. Austin, Texas, is another glutted market, with sellers outnumbering buyers by 124%. And in Phoenix, there are twice as many sellers as buyers.

One contributor to Florida’s lopsidedness is a heavier preponderance of condos, which have seen a surge in insurance premiums and HOA dues following more severe storms and the collapse of the Surfside condo in July 2021, which killed 98 people, including Colorado resident Cassondra Stratton.

Florida also experienced a surge in population following the pandemic, which temporarily boosted demand and helped push up real estate prices. Some of those newbies, as well as longtime Canadian snowbirds, are wanting out.

Nationally, the condo market is the segment that has swung most solidly in favor of buyers, with 259,137 sellers vs. 141,223 buyers last month — an 83.5% overrepresentation by sellers, Katz and Kahn said in their report. For single-family homes, the seller overrepresentation is 27.8% and for townhomes, it is 33%.

Prices still aren’t falling in most markets that have tilted in favor of buyers, but if current trends hold and mortgage rates don’t fall and reignite buyer demand, then it is likely only a matter of time.

Redfin estimates that the median price of a home sold in metro Denver is down 0.1% over the past year, compared to a 1.6% gain nationally. Although it doesn’t have a forecast for Denver, it predicts home prices nationally will drop 1% this year and is advising sellers in Colorado and elsewhere to get moving before they lose the bargaining power they have left.

“Inventory is piling up as buyers are pulling back due to high costs and ongoing economic uncertainty. Prices are already starting to drop slightly with the median sale price down 0.1% compared to a year ago and likely to fall more by year-end,” predicted Chen Zhao, Redfin’s head of economic research.

Denver’s home price decline could be a rounding error, but it could also represent a tipping point. Zillow, which had predicted home price gains averaging 0.1% for metro Denver at the start of the year, now predicts they will fall 0.9% by next April.

But Zillow, in a report published Thursday, also shows above-average demand still at play in metro Denver. Listings in March had 6.2 engaged buyers in Denver compared to 5.5 nationally. About 32% of homes sell above the list price in Denver compared to only 27% nationally. Half of listings go under contract within 11 days compared to 17 days required nationally.

And the inventory of homes listed for sale in metro Denver remains below the historical averages going back to 1985, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors. But that gap is closing rapidly.

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Senate Bill 20 gives cities and counties explicit authority to pursue civil actions — like fines or lawsuits — to enforce the state’s tenant and safe-housing laws that regulate security deposits, apartment conditions, rental applications and mobile home parks. Those provisions were already enforceable by the attorney general, while individual local governments had their own housing codes.

The law also allows those authorities — as well as the Colorado Attorney General’s Office — to ask a court to temporarily give control of rundown buildings to a third-party caretaker so the property can be restored to suitable condition.

Gov. Jared Polis signed SB-20 into law Wednesday. Most of its provisions go into effect in August. Others — allowing actions related to bed bugs and sexual and domestic misconduct — go into effect Jan. 1. The AG’s office will also be empowered to bring actions related to those issues starting on New Year’s Day.

“This law will hold negligent landlords accountable when they illegally ignore dangerous living conditions,” Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat, said in a statement. He sponsored the bill with fellow Democrats Rep. Mandy Lindsay and Sens. Mike Weissman and Julie Gonzales. “By giving the attorney general, counties and municipalities more authority to enforce tenant protection laws, Colorado renters will have more advocates in their corner to fight for safe housing.”

The law was directly inspired by CBZ Management and the two brothers who controlled it and a collection of chronically dilapidated buildings in Aurora and Denver. For years, tenants had complained about the properties’ lack of heat and hot water, their chronic roach infestations and faulty appliances.

Officials in both cities repeatedly dinged the company for its persistently unsafe conditions, but little more was done until August, when Aurora ordered the closure of one of the buildings. The properties’ owners, Shmaryahu and Zev Baumgarten, blamed the chronic deficiencies at their Aurora buildings on Venezuelan gangs, which had more recently established themselves in some of the Aurora buildings.

Nine months later, all of CBZ’s Aurora properties have been closed or moved out of the company’s control, either through city action or because the Baumgartens failed to pay their creditors. Another property in Denver was also closed — and moved into receivership — earlier this year because it was deemed unsafe.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman testified in favor of the bill in February and referred to the Baumgartens as “out-of-state slumlords.”

Had SB 20 been in place last year, “we would’ve been able to step in, ask for a receivership to come in and provide these necessary resources to help (CBZ’s tenants) live in a safe and habitable place and grow and prosper,” Joshua King, the Aurora official who oversees code enforcement, added.

All four of the bill’s sponsors hail from Denver and Aurora, where CBZ’s properties were primarily concentrated.

Under the new law, cities, counties and the AG must ask a court to appoint a third-party receiver when a landlord has shown a “pattern of neglect.” The law specifically spells out heating problems, pest infestations and filthy conditions as among the issues that could require a court’s intervention.

While in receivership, the court-appointed caretaker would use rental payments to repair the building’s condition and restore the property. A landlord could ask a court to end the receivership after three months.

The law marks the second straight year that lawmakers have tightened oversight of housing conditions because of specific landlords.

Last year, Gonzales and Lindsay sponsored another bill that required landlords to more quickly fix problems and made it easier for tenants to raise concerns. That bill was inspired by concerns at the Felix building in Denver, as well as by issues with CBZ.

That law also allowed the attorney general to investigate unsafe housing conditions — a power that Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office has since used to begin investigating CBZ and the Baumgartens.

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In his veto letter for House Bill 1004, Polis wrote that he had “grave concerns about prohibiting companies using algorithmic pricing software derived from multiple data sources from doing business in Colorado.”

He suggested that the use of rent-setting algorithms, which are currently being challenged in court by Colorado’s attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice, may already be illegal and that he prefers to wait until the court cases “run their course.”

The vetoed bill essentially targeted RealPage, the software developer of a prominent rent-setting algorithm and the subject of federal and state lawsuits over alleged collusion. The company’s tool allows landlords to plug information like rents and occupancy limits into an algorithm, which returns a recommended rent, according to a 2022 ProPublica investigation.

The investigative outlet quoted company executives celebrating how the software had enabled rent increases above what property managers would have otherwise charged.

Late last year, the Biden White House found that Denver-area renters who lived in apartments that used RealPage’s software paid more than $1,600 more than their peers every year. That was the second-highest price disparity of the 20 major metro areas included in the study.

“Governor Polis had the opportunity to save Coloradans money, but instead aligned himself with tech companies currently facing litigation from the federal government and multiple states,” Sen. Julie Gonzales, one of the sponsors of HB 1004, said in a statement Thursday.

RealPage has denied allegations that it has enabled price-fixing or otherwise broken the law. In a statement Thursday night, spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock said the company applauded Polis’ “courageous leadership in doing the right thing and vetoing HB25-1004.”

“This is the right outcome for all of us who desire a healthy housing ecosystem that benefits Colorado renters and housing providers alike,” she wrote. “We want to thank Governor Polis and the broad array of supporters of housing affordability who instead advocated for the responsible use of technology and tools like RealPage’s algorithmic pricing software to find fair pricing, ultimately benefiting all Coloradans.”

The Justice Department and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser are suing the company and several large landlords for allegedly establishing a cartel-like system to drive up rent prices by sharing confidential information. In his veto letter, Polis said he would support strengthening the state’s anti-trust laws — which RealPage and landlords are accused of breaking — in a “non-product specific way.”

HB 1004’s Democratic sponsors and supporters blasted Polis’ veto Thursday.

Rep. Steven Woodrow, a Denver Democrat who sponsored a similar bill last year, said it was “unfortunate that someone who claims to care so deeply about saving people money has chosen the interests of large corporate landlords over those of hard-working Coloradans.”

“I hope the candidates for governor are prepared to state on record whether they’ll sign this bill when it comes before them,” Woodrow said in a text message. “Voters deserve to know who their elected officials really work for.”

Still, the veto wasn’t unexpected. Polis’s office had signaled skepticism to the bill throughout the session. When asked about his position, the governor’s office would only evasively say that Polis “likes math.”

The bill was a priority of the House Democratic caucus and had been highlighted throughout the session as an example of their efforts to take on the state’s affordability crisis. Sam Gilman, the CEO of the Community Economic Defense Project, which supported the bill, said Polis rejected “the most meaningful legislation we had to lower costs for renters.”

Polis said he may potentially support a more limited bill next year. If sponsors bring the bill again, it will be the third time they’ve sought to ban the algorithms in as many years. A first attempt died last year after a group of moderate Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to neuter the bill at the behest of RealPage’s lobbyist.

The veto, one of four announced Thursday evening, is already Polis’s 11th of the year. The total vetoes in 2025 now surpass his record of 10 in 2023.

It’s also one of several rejections this year that has an explicit pro-tech lean: He previously vetoed a bill to more tightly regulate social media companies and another that would’ve added new safety requirements for Uber and Lyft drivers.

The other three bills vetoed Thursday sought to require that licensed drivers ride in and monitor autonomous commercial vehicles; eliminate copayments for health services in state prisons; and stop surprise bills from ambulance services not covered by passengers’ health insurance.

Polis wrote that House Bill 1122, the requirement for commercial driver’s license holders to ride in autonomous commercial vehicles, would “effectively create a first-in-the-nation prohibition on autonomous commercial vehicle testing and operations.”

He wrote in his veto letter that Colorado had already passed a law in 2017 addressing the nascent technology “which set the gold standard for autonomous vehicle regulation.” That law created a multi-agency oversight process while “establishing a path forward for new technological innovation in Colorado,” Polis wrote.

HB 1122 passed both legislative chambers with large bipartisan majorities.

House Bill 1026 would have repealed $5 copayments charged to inmates in state prisons for health care services sought by the inmates. The bill would have also prohibited the state Department of Corrections from charging fees to inmates who failed to appear for their appointments.

In his veto letter, Polis wrote that “the changes directed by this bill reflect a degree of micromanagement of DOC operations that I cannot support, and are better addressed through internal policy changes.”

Polis wrote that he agreed with the bill’s sponsors that inmates are “ill-positioned to afford copay obligations.” 

In concurrence with the veto, he signed an executive order on Thursday requiring the department to reduce the copayment costs and update the list of services for which the department waives the charges. The changes should be finished by Aug. 1, according to the executive order.

The bill passed both chambers on a party-line vote.

House Bill 1088 sought to add transparency requirements for ambulances and set reimbursement rates for out-of-network services. HB 1088 also would have prohibited out-of-network ambulance services from charging individuals for costs that would have otherwise been covered by their insurance. 

Polis noted in his veto letter that surprise bills “can be devastating to Coloradans’ personal finances” and that the bill would have helped make sure people didn’t hesitate to call 911.

But Polis vetoed the legislation due to a mix of drafting errors in the bill that made it “unimplementable” and estimated increases to insurance premiums of $2.15 per month per person, he wrote. He urged sponsors to continue to work on the issue.

“I am committed to working with proponents and sponsors to protect Coloradans from surprise bills, but I encourage all parties to work towards a more reasonable reimbursement rate that mitigates premium impacts and nets a better deal for Colorado families,” Polis wrote.

The bill passed both chambers unanimously.

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