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Housing group tells council region faces roughly 13,000–14,000‑unit shortfall as prices outpace incomes
Summary
Pikes Peak Housing Network told the City Council work session that the region’s housing deficit is roughly 13,000–14,000 units and that incomes have lagged home‑price and rent growth, creating affordability challenges for younger residents; presenter urged policies to increase production and fix construction‑defect barriers to condos.
Pikes Peak Housing Network presented its 2025 State of Housing data to the City of Colorado Springs work session on May 11, telling council members the Pikes Peak region faces an estimated housing deficit of roughly 13,000–14,000 units.
The presenter, identified in the transcript as Jill from Pikes Peak Housing Network, said a simple calculation comparing households to housing units yields the shortfall estimate and highlighted decadelong trends: incomes rose about 48%, average rents rose about 111% and average home prices rose about 141%. She said the median home price cited for 2025 was $460,000, that it briefly hit $500,000 in August 2025 and that a figure near $540,000 was being observed in early 2026.
“These numbers in a nutshell are why our younger community members are unable to purchase a home,” the presenter said, adding that a 20% down payment on a $540,000 home with a 6% interest rate would produce a monthly mortgage-only payment of roughly $2,800 and a total housing payment near $3,400 after taxes and insurance. She said a household would need to earn about $138,000 to keep that payment near 30% of income while the region’s median income is closer to $87,000.
The presenter also reviewed permit trends, saying single‑family permitting peaked in the mid‑2000s (more than 5,500 single‑family starts in about 2005) and has since declined while multifamily permits rose and, around 2023, multifamily permitting surpassed single‑family permits. She emphasized that while thousands of units have been permitted in the last decade, condos accounted for only a sliver of that total and she argued that construction‑defect litigation has constrained condo production.
Council members pressed for source details. Councilman Rainey asked where the data came from; the presenter said she relied on Apartment Trends and a quarterly report from the Apartment Association of Southern Colorado for rental data and on the regional building permit database for permit trends. Councilmembers also asked about measuring housing production relative to population growth and older historical trends; the presenter and councilmembers suggested follow‑up research to compare permit volumes as a percentage of population across decades.
Why it matters: The council heard that demand and affordability problems reflect both price inflation and supply constraints, and the presentation framed policy levers—such as land‑use changes, accessory dwelling units and construction‑defect reform—as part of a strategy to increase attainable housing. The presenter urged the council and state leaders to address the construction‑defect regime and to support production and affordability programs.
What’s next: Council members asked staff to follow up with permit‑to‑population trend work and to consider how the city’s policy and advocacy efforts can respond to the deficit estimate and the production gaps the presentation identified.
