Colorado voters take on the state’s soaring housing costs

Coloradans are tackling the state’s expensive housing costs on this year’s ballot measures. Some of the measures include allocating tax revenue towards affordable housing.

The U.S. Census Bureau found that over half of all Colorado tenants are considered rent burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on rent in 2020. Colorado housing prices rank among the nation's highest when accounting for how much its residents earn. The Denver metropolitan area alone saw home prices shoot up by 35% over the past two years, which was a larger increase than those in New York City and San Francisco, according to data from the real estate company Redfin.

Tyler Randolph, an eighth grade teacher in Denver, said that if an affordable housing solution isn’t coming from those he elected, "it has to come from somewhere else." He voted for Proposition 123, a statewide measure that would direct an estimated $300 million in state tax revenue to low-cost housing each year. It's the only statewide affordable housing measure in the country that will be decided in Tuesday's midterm election.