Business/Technology Reporter
Quick links: What prices changed in Denver | Douglas, Weld gain employment | | Cargill worker lockout update | Home sales for May | Take the reader poll
Inflation may be on the rise, but that’s kind of beside the point when Coloradans continue to struggle with affordability.
That’s what Jack Buffington, an associate professor at the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver, pointed out earlier this week in an interview about metro Denver’s annual inflation rate hitting 5%, the highest since September 2023.
“There’s affordability and there’s inflation,” he said. “In Colorado, when it comes to housing and a car and health insurance, these are becoming unaffordable. The point is that if they’re unaffordable, inflation doesn’t really matter. If you can’t afford a house, it doesn’t matter if inflation goes up by 3% or 8%.”
Others have also been pointing this out, including a first-quarter report from the conservative think tank Common Sense Institute. It ranked Colorado as the 43rd least affordable state in the nation — and that was before the recent spike in gas prices due to the U.S. war in Iran.
Add in the higher energy costs since the war began Feb. 28, and, according to a new analysis this week by the Joint Economic Committee Minority, that’s led to an average $347 more spent on gas and $3,300 more spent on goods and services for the average Colorado household, said U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat.
“Coloradans are facing a cost-of-living emergency,” Hickenlooper said in a statement that went on to criticize President Donald Trump’s policies like tariffs, healthcare cuts and the Iran war that have led to higher costs for residents.
The federal data showing that consumer prices in May are mostly higher than a year ago in the U.S. and the Denver metro is probably not surprising to many consumers because they’re reminded each time they fill up their car.
The average gallon of regular gas in Colorado was back down to $4.17 on Friday, 10 cents lower than two days earlier but up 51.6% since the U.S. started the war with Iran on the last day of February. That’s where it was a week ago, according to AAA’s Colorado gas-price tracker.
“I filled up with gas the other day and the cost was $74 for 17 gallons,” Broomfield economist Gary Horvath said. “That caught my attention.”
The affordability struggle has been going on in the state long before the change in administrations. The median sales price of a house in Colorado has hovered near $600,000 for two years, but that’s about 50% higher than where it was in 2020.
Even if a homeowner managed to snag a pretty low interest rate at the time, the other costs of homeownership may have offset any savings.
“Although we are not struggling to pay our mortgage, our property tax increases have raised our mortgage payment by $400/month since 2024,” said Corrine Dooraghi, who lives in Buena Vista. “It makes me really wonder how folks are able to withstand such drastic increases.”
And then there’s the cost of living in more rural areas where it’s more costly to transport goods, like groceries. But most people are like Dooraghi, who found herself adjusting to higher prices by changing her family’s habits.
“Our grocery costs are outrageous. Meat, eggs, milk, coffee, all the staples have gone way up. We have changed the choices we make when we grocery shop,” she said in an email. “We look for sales and we have changed our eating habits. We eat less meat and make meals that stretch further. I buy only what we really need each week. When we go out to dinner, even just for burgers, the bill is at least $50 with a tip for just the two of us. We certainly decide more intentionally whether we will go out for a meal rather than cook.”
More on Colorado’s economy
➔ Colorado ranks in the middle for gas prices. Based on AAA data from Friday, Colorado’s average price of $4.17 for a gallon of regular gas ranks as 22nd highest. California continued to lead the nation, at $5.79 a gallon, while Indiana had the lowest at $3.95. But keep in mind, Coloradans pay some of the lowest taxes on gas. Buffington, the DU professor, said we benefit from having the Suncor refinery in Commerce City, so reliance on Middle Eastern oil is less of an issue.
➔ Coloradans are using credit cards more. And we’re going deeper into debt, according to a recent LendingTree report, which ranked Colorado as the 12th highest state for average credit card debt in the U.S. Based on third-quarter data from 2024 and 2025, the company said the average credit card debt for Colorado increased 6.5% during the year to $8,911.
➔ Douglas and Weld saw employment gains in 2025. And they were the only two of the state’s nine largest counties that added workers between December 2024 and 2025, according to new BLS data shared Thursday. Denver County saw the largest drop of 1.2%, down to 560,000 workers, followed by Jefferson County, down 1.1%. Weld County gained 0.3% and Douglas County increased 1.6%.
The data comes from employers who pay for unemployment insurance for their staff, so it doesn’t include most gig workers, freelancers and the self-employed. At the end of last year, the number of Colorado businesses with covered employees had grown 9% to 258,528 from a year earlier. >> See more
Take the poll
How’s the economy treating you?
Not too long ago, Denver led the nation for the lowest inflation in July 2024, at 1.9%. We’re nearly the leader now, as of May 2026.
With a 5% annual increase in overall consumer prices, the Denver area was just below Hawaii and New York, both of which were at 5.1% in May. How’s the economy treating you?
➔ Help us better understand what’s going on in Colorado and take our poll: cosun.co/WWco-economy26
Sun economy stories you may have missed
➔ First came the robots. Then came the cameras. That’s when this Colorado mountain town had enough. Controversy is being stirred by a Silicon Valley refugee who says Paonia is “on the cutting edge of violating citizens’ privacy.” Now he’s running for mayor. >> Read story
➔ As river outfitters brace for a low-water season, a glampground on the Colorado River is betting big. While freeflowing rivers will drop over the summer, they say the dam-release-controlled stretch of the Colorado they run will be fine >> Read story
➔ Colorado women cite cost of living and inequality as top election issues. New poll finds financial strain, healthcare access and housing affordability driving voter concerns >> Read story
➔ Denver-area inflation increases to 5%. Blame energy costs. Biggest contributors to higher prices are the cost of gas and energy, which increased at double-digit rates. Food costs were also higher, growing 1.8% in the past year >> Read story
➔ As retiree pensions shrank, Colorado PERA paid its staff millions of dollars in bonuses. Nearly half of PERA’s investment staff doubled their salaries through incentives, a Colorado Sun analysis found >> Read story
➔ Northern Water wins some, loses some on its $2.7 billion dams project. More cities have dropped out, but Fort Collins may now be interested in order to avoid pricey Halligan expansion >> Read story
➔ More than 40,000 Coloradans will need a new health insurance carrier next year. Here’s who is affected. Cigna announced earlier this year that it is withdrawing from the individual insurance market nationwide >> Read story
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Other working bits
➔ Cargill workers in Fort Morgan still locked out, file claim with labor board. The union representing 1,700 Cargill Meat Solutions employees filed an unfair labor practice claim Wednesday with the National Labor Relations Board for cutting off workers pay and benefits, according to the Teamsters Local 455. The company stopped paying workers May 20 after 90% of union members voted to reject the new contract. Union members had already been on paid leave for a month prior.
Union officials called Cargill’s lockout illegal. “These charges make clear that Cargill cannot ignore the law. It’s time for the company to stop stalling and return to the bargaining table,” Dean Modecker, secretary-treasurer of Local 455 said in a statement. The last contract expired in February and negotiations broke down in April over wages and bathroom breaks. The company rerouted beef to other Cargill facilities and says it “remains focused on reaching an agreement,” with the union.
➔ Colorado median home prices up 2.7% in May. That increase to $565,000 statewide included townhomes and condos, which saw a 2.4% decline in median prices to $409,745, according to May results from the Colorado Association of Realtors. But the price of a median home in the state was $599,000, just $1,000 off from metro Denver’s median price of $600,000. That price has gone down and back up a bit but is now where it was in 2022 after the pandemic run up. Owners apparently are still holding back, and offered 16.6% fewer listings in Denver than a year ago.
“The bottom line — Denver metro is not racing nor crashing, it is proving resilient and steady,” Cooper Thayer, a Denver Realtor, said in a news release. “For buyers, the market offers more breathing room than it did a few years ago, but waiting for a major price reset may continue to be a frustrating strategy.” >> See latest data by county
➔ Colorado’s app surpasses 2 million registered users. The myColorado mobile app has added multiple features since its debut around 2019 and now has 2 million registered users, according to the Governor’s Office of Information Technology. Besides users being able to add their digital driver’s license (which has interactive security features to prevent fraud and counterfeit IDs), residents can renew a driver’s license, store their vehicle registration, which comes in handy if they have a Keep Colorado Wild Pass to get into all state parks. New for this year: The Passport program, which is not a U.S. passport but the state’s effort to celebrate its 150th birthday by highlighting cool places to visit and businesses offering discounts. >> The app
➔ Coloradans are generous. The state ranked second nationally in 2023 for participating in charity with 62% of the population making donations, according to a new analysis by Common Sense Institute. That led the Greenwood Village think tank to estimate that residents gave $6.1 billion to charity last year. The startling point CSI makes: Replacing that amount “would require raising Colorado’s flat income tax rate by more than half from 4.40% to 7.09%.” >> View report
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Thanks for sticking with me for this week’s report. As always, share your 2 cents on how the economy is keeping you down or helping you up at cosun.co/heyww. ~ tamara
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