COLORADO SPRINGS — In 2020, 27,340 people moved to Colorado compared to 34,162 in 2019, according to the Colorado State Demography Office.
"We kind of reached our peak in terms of growth rate and growth amount in 2015 and it's been slowing ever since," said Elizabeth Garner, Colorado's State Demographer.
2015 saw 68,844 people move to Colorado.
Garner says after the great recession hit in 2008, the state slowed down drastically on housing production from about 2010 to 2015.
"We really slowed down due to the great recession and so then, ya know, you still have population growth, there is then this extra demand for housing and so prices are being pushed up and it is making it really unaffordable."
Meanwhile, data from the Colorado Association of Realtors shows the average cost of a house in El Paso county has basically doubled since 2016.
Zillow says the average cost of a home in Colorado Springs is $461,668.
Governor Jared Polis says he wants to make Colorado more affordable if he is re-elected this November.
"I know that Colorodans are feeling a lot of pressure from inflation," said Polis and his re-election campaign kick off in Pueblo.
Garner says making the dream of a lower cost of living in Colorado a reality, boils down to more housing production as fewer people move into the state and a steady amount continue moving out.
"How do we bring in more housing at that affordable level? And it is not just affordable, it's like attainable. We're not just looking at all low income housing."
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