According to an affordability survey from OJO Labs, the research arm of Austin-based real estate platform Movoto by OJO, home prices are rising so rapidly along the Front Range that Denver and Colorado Springs ranked among the 10 most unaffordable housing markets in the country last month.

Metro Denver moved up four spots to eighth least affordable, while Colorado Springs rose one spot to 10th in February’s ranking, which looks at the ratio of the median home sold price to median household incomes. Denver had an unaffordability ratio of 5.67, based on a median home sold price, including condos, of $540,000, which ranked fourth highest, and now ahead of New York City and Boston.

Colorado Springs, which has absorbed some of the unmet demand in metro Denver in recent years, had a median home sold price of $440,000, which was 5.62 times median household income. Its median home price is tied with Miami-Fort Lauderdale for the 11th most expensive.

California had four of the 10 least affordable housing markets, led by San Diego with an unaffordability ratio of 8.27, based on a median home sold price of $777,000. Until January, San Francisco-Oakland had consistently held the top spot for unaffordability with a ratio of 7.97. Los Angeles is the third least affordable market and Sacramento-Stockton is the seventh least affordable.

A lack of supply is driving strong home price appreciation and contributing to unaffordability. As a state, Colorado had the fifth most competitive housing market in the country in February, with 58.4% of homes selling above the original list price, compared to only 47.2% in January.

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