Most Expensive Places To Live In Colorado For 2020

The 10 Most Expensive Places To Live In Colorado For 2020

1. Boulder

Boulder is the home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Boulder County, and the 11th most populous municipality in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of 5,430 feet above sea level. The city is 25 miles northwest of Denver.

The median income in Boulder comes in at $66,117 and the median home value is $645,600 for 2020.

The Town of Vail is a Home Rule Municipality in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The population of the town was 5,305 in 2010. The town was established and built as the base village to Vail Ski Resort, with which it was originally conceived. Vail Ski Resort's first season was in December 1962; it is the largest ski mountain in Colorado.

The median income in Vail comes in at $75,703 and the median home value is $775,100 for 2020.

The City of Edgewater is a Home Rule Municipality located in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Edgewater is located immediately west of Denver, in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population is 5,170. Edgewater is surrounded by Denver to the east, Lakewood to the south and west, and Wheat Ridge to the north.

The median income in Edgewater comes in at $49,665 and the median home value is $378,500 for 2020.

4. Golden

Golden is the Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Golden lies along Clear Creek at the base of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Founded during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush on 16 June 1859, the mining camp was originally named Golden City in honor of Thomas L. Golden. Golden City served as the capital of the provisional Territory of Jefferson from 1860 to 1861, and capital of the official Territory of Colorado from 1862 to 1867. In 1867, the territorial capital was moved about 12 miles east to Denver City. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 18,867 in 2010.

The median income in Golden comes in at $66,344 and the median home value is $485,800 for 2020.

5. Carbondale

The Town of Carbondale is a Home Rule Municipality in Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 6427 at the 2010 United States Census. The town is located in the Roaring Fork Valley, downstream from Aspen and upstream from the mouth of the Roaring Fork River at Glenwood Springs. The town proper sits on the south bank of the river, at the confluence of the Crystal River. Carbondale's horizon is dominated by the 12,953ft tall Mount Sopris several miles to the south of town.

The median income in Carbondale comes in at $78,438 and the median home value is $468,900 for 2020.

6. Durango

The City of Durango is the county seat and the most populous municipality of La Plata County, Colorado, United States. It is home to Fort Lewis College. The United States Census Bureau reported a population of 16,887 in the 2010 census.

The median income in Durango comes in at $63,167 and the median home value is $442,900 for 2020.

7. Aspen

Aspen is the home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. Its population was 6,658 at the 2010 United States Census. Aspen is in a remote area of the Rocky Mountains' Sawatch Range and Elk Mountains, along the Roaring Fork River at an elevation just below 8,000 feet above sea level on the Western Slope, 11 miles west of the Continental Divide.

The median income in Aspen comes in at $72,973 and the median home value is $641,600 for 2020.

8. Steamboat Springs

The City of Steamboat Springs, often shortened to just Steamboat, is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Routt County, Colorado, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 12,088.

The median income in Steamboat Springs comes in at $71,476 and the median home value is $551,000 for 2020.

9. Fort Collins

Fort Collins is the Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Larimer County, Colorado, United States. Situated on the Cache La Poudre River along the Colorado Front Range, Fort Collins is located 65 miles north of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. With a 2016 estimated population of 161,000, it is the fourth most populous city in Colorado after Denver, Colorado Springs, and Aurora. Fort Collins is a midsize college city, home to Colorado State University.

The median income in Fort Collins comes in at $62,132 and the median home value is $338,100 for 2020.

10. Glenwood Springs

The City of Glenwood Springs is the Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Garfield County, Colorado, United States. Glenwood Springs is located at the confluence of the Roaring Fork River and the Colorado River, threading together the Roaring Fork Valley and a series of smaller towns up and down the Colorado River. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 9,614.

The median income in Glenwood Springs comes in at $63,248 and the median home value is $370,600 for 2020.

How We Determined The Most Expensive Places To Live In The Centennial State For 2020

The two most important things to think about when it comes to being able to afford if you can live comes down to:

1. How much do money do I make?
2. How much do I have spend to live there?

You need to understand your costs in the context of how much money you make.

For example, if the median household earns $100,000 and spends $40,000 on housing it's actually cheaper to live there than a place with a median income of $50,000 and housing costs of $21,000. You might spend more on housing, but you have more money overall to play with.

With that example in mind, we derived several statistics from the latest Census American Community Survey 2014-2018 around incomes and costs. They are:

• Median Home Price / Median Income (lower is better)
• Median Income / Median Rent (Higher is better)
• Median Home Price

We added simply median home price because high home prices generally correlate with higher expenses for all costs related to homes (heating, electricity, etc).

You can then compare these metrics in each of the places in Colorado to figure out which is the most expensive.

What you are left with is a "Cost of Living Index" by taking the average rank of each of these metrics for each city.

So we used that cost of living index in order to rank all of the 76 places in Colorado that have more than 5,000 people.

The place with the highest cost of living in Colorado according to the data is Boulder. You can download the data here.