What stakeholders told the state

The report labels these as stakeholder input rather than independently validated findings, and reports them anyway because they are the market's own account of itself.

“Deductibles have climbed to unprecedented levels, sometimes reaching 10%, creating severe financial strain.”

“[M]ajor carriers have exited, leaving some associations with only one option - or none, while renewal quotes have surged up to eightfold.”

“[F]ew carriers have the capacity to write large properties, often exceeding $50 million in total insured value.”

On why HOAs specifically: buildings “often spaced less than 10 feet apart,” large campus-style roof surfaces that drive hail severity, and — the sentence aimed at boards — “[m]any properties are over 40 years old, with aging HVAC and plumbing systems and deferred maintenance.”

On governance: “Board members, often volunteers with full-time careers, lack the time and expertise to navigate complex insurance decisions and frequently rely on agents whose advice may be incomplete or inaccurate.”

And on mitigation, the finding that HB25-1182 was written to fix: “Current catastrophe models overlook structural vulnerabilities and community mitigation efforts. As a result, mitigation investments rarely translate into premium discounts.”

The underwriting levers, ranked by the carriers themselves

Two ranked lists in the report are more useful to a board than any of the premium figures, because they are the things an association can act on.

Drivers of HOA insurance availability: 1. Hail. 2. Risk appetite. 3. Wildfires. 4. Concentration of insured value. 5. Windstorm. 6. Liability and social inflation. 7. Reinsurance.

Drivers of eligibility: 1. Condition of property, excluding roof. 2. Location. 3. Prior loss history. 4. Roof. 5. Age of property. 6. Over-insured value. 7. Occupancy type. 8. Number of buildings.

Note what is first on the eligibility list, and that it is not the roof. Deferred maintenance is an underwriting fact before it is a reserve problem.

Note also what is nearly last on availability: reinsurance. Only 16 of 98 HOA-writing insurers reported difficulty securing it in the past three years, and the Reinsurance Association of America told the study that “[r]einsurance availability in Colorado remains stable.” The binding constraint is domestic risk appetite, not global capacity.

Geography

Denver County leads at $35.8 million in-force HOA premium, then Jefferson at $22.3 million, Arapahoe at $17.5 million, Summit at about $12.3 million and Pitkin at about $7.5 million. Across the top ten counties, premium rose by as much as 143% and policy counts by as much as 82%. At ZIP-code level, in the top ten ZIPs by in-force premium, policy counts surged by as much as 652% and premium volumes by over 400%.

That concentration data is why two neighbouring Colorado associations can get very different renewal treatment, and it is worth reading before concluding your broker mishandled something.

What this means for a board

Treat property condition as an underwriting document. It ranks first on eligibility. A maintenance log and a current condition assessment are underwriting assets.

Know your insured value and how it was set. Over-insured value is a listed eligibility problem, not just a cost problem.

If the community exceeds roughly $50 million in insured value, plan renewal 120 to 180 days out, not thirty, and expect a layered or shared programme.

If you are being pushed to a 10% deductible, model the per-owner number before binding — and check the declaration's deductible-allocation provision first. Colorado has a live cautionary case on exactly that sequence.

Document mitigation even where no discount is offered today. HB25-1182 became effective July 1, 2026 and is the mechanism for forcing that documentation into the rating, with a ten-day and thirty-day appeal clock.

And treat “form a captive” as a recommendation, not a product. The report counts four HOA captives in the entire state.

What the state recommends, and what it cannot do

The report's recommendations are options for the Division and for policymakers, none self-executing: encourage captives and cooperatives and coordinated bulk mitigation upgrades; push carriers toward granular property-level models that credit community-wide mitigation; amplify the Division's existing education materials, which the report finds suffer from “low public awareness”; expand layered structures and surplus lines; and consider cosmetic damage sub-limits and tiered deductibles for catastrophic perils.

Two of those have since become rules rather than recommendations. Division of Insurance Regulation 5-1-28 takes effect October 1, 2026 and Regulation 5-1-29 on January 1, 2027, and both reach commercial policies covering residential condominium units by definition. The study is what they were built on.