Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Why Colorado lawmakers hope this is the year to solve the affordable condo crisis | The Colorado Independent

Why Colorado lawmakers hope this is the year to solve the affordable condo crisis | The Colorado Independent: "This much perhaps everyone can agree on: Colorado is in an affordable housing crisis, whether you live on the Front Range, Western Slope or the Eastern Plains. Affordable housing is almost a myth, with rents in Denver for a one-bedroom apartment averaging $1,550 per month.
But is a package of legislation tackling “construction defects reform,” which would change the process by which homeowners with defective condos sue developers, the answer to Colorado’s affordable housing crisis?
Some of those who build condos say yes: If you pass it, giving us more protections against lawsuits, we will return to building affordable for-sale condos and townhomes. But some of those who have lived in defective owner-occupied multi-housing units just don’t buy that."


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Nice tradeoff--for builders. Protect them against lawsuits for shoddy construction, and they will build more lower-end condos. And then what? The people who buy them can't sue after the roof starts leaking, so they have to pay for it with a special assessment that none of them can afford. It is the buyers of low-end condos who are the least able to pay for things like this.

2 comments:

robert @ colorado hoa . com said...

Once you realize that when politicians and pundits say "affordable housing", they don't mean "affordable for the owner", things start to make a lot more sense.

robert @ colorado hoa . com said...

What's old is new again: "Colorado Lawmakers Debate Construction Defects Bill" (03/28/2015, two years ago).