2026-09-10 · Colorado · Regulation · Reported — unconfirmed

By 2025 Colorado was expected to build nearly thirty-nine rental apartments for every condominium. At that pace, four decades of condominium construction would equal one year of apartment production. The figures come from a Colorado Politics column published April 9, 2026 by Peter LiFari, chief executive of Maiker Housing Partners and a housing fellow at the Common Sense Institute.¹

These are reported figures from an opinion column, not a state dataset, and we label them as such. But the legislature's own findings point the same way.

The reported numbers

Had condominium construction held its early-2000s growth trajectory, the column reports, the Front Range would have added 80,000 additional units since 2006.

On cost: condo-builder liability insurance runs 4% to 6% of project hard costs — “roughly four to five times the cost to insure comparable multifamily rental projects.” And fewer than five insurers currently underwrite condominium liability risk in Colorado.

On affordability: median Denver condominium price around $395,000, with only 44% of Colorado households able to afford the typical condominium payment. If insurance costs matched apartment levels, roughly 43,000 additional households could afford one.

On sorting: new condominium construction in higher-income ZIP codes rose from 20% to 28% of the total over fifteen years, while lower-income areas fell from 4% to 2%.

The legislature found the same shift

HB25-1272's own legislative declaration states as findings: “Before 2009, there were 1.25 new apartments for every one condominium. This has shifted radically to 14 new apartments for every condominium in recent years” — alongside “a housing shortfall of at least 100,000 homes in the state.” It also finds that millennials are 38% of Colorado's homebuying market and that the median age of a first-time homebuyer rose from 35 to 38 in a single year.

1. "The future of Colorado condo development," Peter LiFari, Colorado Politics, April 9, 2026 — source of the reported production, insurance-cost and affordability figures ↩
2. HB25-1272 signed act text — the legislative declaration's 1.25-to-1 and 14-to-1 findings and the 100,000-home shortfall ↩
3. HB24-1108 Final Report: Analysis of HOA & Lodging Facilities in Colorado, Lewis & Ellis for the Colorado Division of Insurance ↩
4. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.2-01, Full Review Process (08/05/2026) — the reserve allocation calculation and excluded income ↩
5. Freddie Mac Guide Bulletin 2026-C (March 18, 2026) — reserve increase, per-unit deductible cap and the deductible buy-back permission ↩