Recession put a damper on Colo. homeownership

By Margaret Jackson
The Denver Post
Colorado experienced a sizable drop in the rate of homeownership as the recession deepened, with an almost 2 percentage-point decline from 2007 to 2009, according to U.S. census data released Tuesday.
Of the 1.9 million occupied homes last year, 67 percent were lived in by the owners, down from 68.8 percent in 2007.
“That’s actually a fairly significant drop,” said Ryan McMaken of the Colorado Division of Housing. “It’s not easy to add a percentage of homeownership rate, so if you’re going to drop 2 percent in two years, it’s significant.”
He said foreclosures, job losses and difficulty financing a purchase are contributing to the drop.
“We continue to add people to the population, but more are going into renting now than into owning,” Mc-Maken said. “Buying a home is just relatively less attractive. You’re not able to sustain the number of people who are getting into homeownership as quickly as they were in ’06 and ’07.”
As the vacancy rate for owner-occupied housing increased, the vacancy for rental property dropped from 8.4 percent in 2006 to 8 percent last year.
Median rents have increased from $825 a month in 2006 to $851 last year, with 27.5 percent ranging from $500 to $749 a month.
The average household size was 2.64, up from 2.62 in 2006.