Matt Frommer
@MattFrommer
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Transportation, climate & housing advocate at the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP).
Joined June 2013
Denver now allows single-stair residential buildings up to 5 stories instead of just 3 thanks to HB25-1273 👏
Big pro-housing win: Last week, Denver City Council voted to allow five-story single-stair buildings! This design tweak is equally safe from a fire perspective and enables us to fit more homes in a given building -- making them all more affordable!
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Exciting news on Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in Colorado thanks to House bill 24-1152:
Big congrats to Grand Junction, Superior, Larimer County, Glenwood Springs, Fruita, Brighton, and Longmont on being the first to receive grant money from Colorado's Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Grant Program!
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Big news out of Lakewood, Colorado!
Lakewood just adopted one of Colorado’s most significant zoning updates: legalizing middle housing citywide and making room for the kind of compact, affordable homes the city has been missing.
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Our latest blog post by HFC lead @mattfrommer and economist Luke Teater crunches the numbers on how housing construction affects low-income renters in #Denver:
housingforwardco.org
Denver’s recent experience shows that when we build more housing, rents fall – and they fall the most for households that need the greatest relief.
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Over the last few years, the Denver metro has built a historic amount of new apartments leading to declining rents. In our new blog, Luke Teater and I used RealPage data to measure the rent change. Notably, rents for Class C buildings, the most affordable segment, fell twice
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Last Tuesday, pro-housing advocates celebrated numerous victories in local elections across Colorado. The message is clear: Pro-housing platforms win elections. Read our press release for details:
housingforwardco.org
Voters across the Front Range chose pro-housing city council members and defeated anti-growth ballot measures.
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On CDOT’s proposed $725 million I-270 widening, just one of several costly highway expansions it’s considering in the upcoming 10 year plan:
Will adding more lanes fix I-270 congestion? CDOT’s favored fix will test its new mission, opponents say. https://t.co/8eyDKIFhxf
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Crazy stat from Colorado - 1 in 3 new cars sold in Q3 were electric vehicles. When I started working on EV policy in 2018, that number was 2%! EVs are clearly the technology of the future and sales will continue to climb as EV prices come down relative to gas cars, even without
1 in 3 new cars sold in Colorado last quarter were electric as buyers chased expiring tax credits https://t.co/8Xne0cBoaD
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We know that smart land use & housing policies reduces GHG emissions – but by how much? Our new blog post highlights 5 key takeaways from the state's report: 🏘️ -31% building emissions 🚗 -15% transportation emissions 🌲 +30% of new homes shifted from greenfield sprawl to
housingforwardco.org
Strategic growth policies can reduce emissions from transportation and buildings while saving residents money and protecting open lands.
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Denver atop the leaderboard. Good sign for housing affordability!
Weird... Check out these lists showing where Class C apartment rents are falling most. (Class C = cheapest market-rate units.) In 16 of the 17 MSAs where Class C rents FALLING >6%, new apartment SUPPLY exceeds the U.S. average. And ... guess where Class C rents growing MOST?
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New release from Governor Polis finds most Colorado communities are working toward compliance with state housing laws to expand housing choices & lower costs. In the past year alone: - 60 communities legalized Accessory Dwelling Units or ADUs (HB1152) - 22 are planning more
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Great new blog from my colleague @MaxNardoCO on RTD's Ecopasses. These are insanely affordable - just $7 per month for an unlimited transit pass if purchased in bulk for a whole apartment building. Yet they're hardly used in Denver. New legislation from 2025 should help:
Most of the Denver region just eliminated parking mandates for apartments near transit Making this a perfect time to pair smarter land use with transit pass access SB25-161 expands RTD’s apartment-based EcoPass to make TOD work the way it’s meant to—new post with @jamesflattum⬇️
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Another interesting finding - high-supply metro areas that increased their housing stock by 10% or more cut rents by $470 in 2024. Importantly – “Increasing the whole region’s housing supply has four times the impact on local rents compared with just adding local supply.”
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New @pewtrusts research shows that adding lots of new housing supply lowers rents, especially in older and more affordable Class C apartments. In Denver, average rents fell 4.2% in 2023–24, and Class C rents dropped 7.6%. This shows that big boosts in supply can create more
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Shoutout to @DenverDOTI for building this sweet protected bike lane on South Broadway. At first I was skeptical but now I use it almost daily, and it looks like I’m not the only one… Now please extend it through Golden Triangle, downtown and into Rino thanks
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With Colorado expecting to grow by another 1.7 million people by 2050, we need a coordinated effort between state & local governments to grow in a more sustainable & affordable way. Our analysis shows that most local governments are already taking steps to meet or exceed state
housingforwardco.org
Documenting local governments putting state housing policy into action — and the creative solutions emerging statewide.
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Of solid blue states, Colorado was #2 in homebuilding per capita in 2024 behind only Delaware 👏 All that new supply is working to stabilize and even decrease housing costs, particularly in Denver where housing costs are down 2-5% YOY after rising nearly 50% from 2017 to 2023.
Is your state building housing? Here’s how many housing units were permitted per 1,000 residents in 2024. You’ll notice that many red states are booming, but only four blue states - Washington, Maine, Colorado, and Delaware - are above the nationwide median.
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New press release from SWEEP & partners: Environmental and housing groups support new executive order rewarding local governments for tackling the housing affordability and climate crises. https://t.co/gWOkquvsMv
swenergy.org
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