![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/bldr-housing-costs-incomes.jpg\" "\\"bldr")
<\/a>from the 2014 Boulder Community Profile (https:\/\/www-static.bouldercolorado.gov\/docs\/2014-boulder-colorado-community-profile-1-201409191126.pdf)<\/p><\/div>\n
Driskell pointed out that the prices of detached homes in the city have substantially outpaced the increase in household income during the past ten years. The average sales price of a detached home rose from $419,900 in 2003 to $631,250 in 2013. In contrast, median household income expanded from $73,710 to $82,500 during those same years. The rate of appreciation of the sales prices of attached homes, however, lagged significantly behind that of detached homes. The median sales price of attached homes climbed from $221,660 in 2003 to $266,250 in 2013. Boulder\u2019s housing market is strikingly bifurcated between single-family-detached and multi-family-attached housing, he commented.<\/p>\n
Driskell remarked that \u201cwe have a lot of wealth-based households\u201d whose income alone would not allow them to afford the houses they own but who are able to do so because of accumulated wealth. He also mentioned that a significant percentage of Boulder\u2019s single-family homes are owned and occupied by people who bought them years ago when prices were significantly lower. He further noted that \u201ca lot of housing [about 30 percent of the rental units] is occupied by students who are not part of the work force.\u201d\u00a0 He asserted that in Boulder, as in neighboring communities, developers during recent years have been extremely reluctant to build condominiums due to fear of liability under Colorado\u2019s construction defects law. Instead, they have been constructing rental apartments.<\/p>\n
Driskell observed that nearly all of Boulder\u2019s lower-priced, \u201caffordable\u201d housing is \u201cattached products built in the 1970\u2019s,\u201d as well as dwelling units that are part of the city\u2019s permanently affordable housing program [which limits re-sale prices].<\/p>\n
Driskell said that the Comprehensive Housing Strategy has fallen well behind its original schedule due the disruptive effect of the September, 2013, flood. Most of the work so far has been what Driskell called \u201cfoundational\u201d\u2014in other words, the collection of information. As part of this phase, the city hired BBC Research & Consulting to conduct a housing choice survey<\/a> of about 3,000 individuals, including in-commuters, non-student residents, and student residents.<\/p>\n Incommuter household profile (from https:\/\/www-static.bouldercolorado.gov\/docs\/BBC_-_Housing_Choice_Survey_and_Analysis-1-201405131151.pdf)<\/p><\/div>\n Among the most notable findings of the survey was that the age profiles, racial and ethnic identities, and economic profiles of the in-commuters are very similar to those of city residents. Indeed, the incomes of the in-commuters are in general slightly higher than the incomes of the city residents. The most remarkable differences between the two groups are that significantly more in-commuters than residents have children, and that in-commuters are 1.5 times more likely to live in a single-family home than residents.<\/p>\n The reasons the in-commuters cited for choosing to live outside Boulder were varied, but the predominant one was a preference for a larger dwelling unit and yard in neighboring communities than one could obtain for the same price in Boulder.<\/p>\n<\/a>