Living in Denver, CO

Denver County (consolidated city-county government)

Denver's identity runs through three real, current, and genuinely distinct threads rather than one easy headline. First, aerospace and tech: Denver ranks 1st among the 50 largest US metro areas for private aerospace employment, with more than 30,000 professionals across Lockheed Martin Space, Ball Aerospace, Northrop Grumman, and Sierra Nevada Corporation -- Lockheed alone employs over 11,000 in the area. Layered on top is a genuinely growing tech sector: over 5,000 new tech jobs added in 2025, a federal Tech Hub designation for quantum technology, and a tech sector that directly accounts for 10% of Colorado's employment and 20% of its GDP statewide. Economists projected roughly 17,500 new metro jobs across 2026 with unemployment near 3.9%, below the national rate at the time of that projection. Second, cannabis: Colorado's 2014 legalization made Denver the industry's commercial anchor, and the numbers are real rather than symbolic -- the state has collected roughly $3.22 billion in cumulative marijuana tax revenue since legalization, including $236.4 million in 2025 alone on more than $1 billion in regulated sales that year. That said, the industry is currently softening, not still booming: first-half 2026 tax revenue ran about 4% below the same period in 2025 as average flower prices fell 25% year-over-year to $4.61/gram, a real and current headwind disclosed honestly rather than papered over. Third, Denver sells a genuine outdoor-recreation-adjacent lifestyle -- close to, not inside, the Rockies. Denver International Airport (82.4 million 2025 passengers, the 3rd-busiest airport in the US) sits about 25 miles from downtown, with ski resorts reachable in roughly one to three hours via I-70: Winter Park at about 58 miles, Breckenridge around 104 miles, Vail around 119 miles. That accessibility, paired with all four major pro sports franchises clustered near downtown (Broncos, Rockies, Nuggets, Avalanche -- Denver is the smallest US city with all four), gives Denver a real urban-plus-mountain-access identity distinct from an actual mountain town. Two real costs temper all of this. Denver sits in "Hail Alley," the zone centered where Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming meet that sees the highest frequency of large hail in North America; the May 2017 Denver-metro storm remains the costliest insured catastrophe in state history at $2.3 billion, and Colorado now carries the nation's 4th-highest average homeowners insurance premium (about $4,600/year, up 58% since 2018) largely because of it. And housing affordability has become a genuine, serious strain after Denver's post-2020 price boom: the median home sale price has run in the low-to-mid $600,000s through mid-2026, while the Denver-metro median household income of roughly $92,500 falls well short of the estimated $120,000-$140,000 needed to comfortably afford that median home -- a real affordability gap, not a marginal one, compounded by a cumulative 46.2% rent increase over the trailing decade that has outpaced wage growth in tech and healthcare alike.

Explore Denver in depth

• Moving to Denver: Pros, Cons & What to Know
• Cost of Living in Denver
• Housing Market in Denver
• Buying a Home in Denver
• Renting in Denver
• Property Taxes in Denver
• Taxes in Denver
• Homeowners Insurance in Denver
• Flood & Hurricane Risk in Denver
• Climate & Weather in Denver
• Jobs & Economy in Denver
• Schools in Denver
• Crime & Safety in Denver
• Healthcare in Denver
• Traffic & Transportation in Denver
• Best Areas to Live in Denver
• Pros and Cons of Living in Denver
• Who Should / Shouldn’t Move to Denver
• Who Should NOT Move to Denver?
• Retiring in Denver
• Living in Denver for Families
• Living in Denver for Remote Workers
• Is Denver a Good Place to Live?

Housing

Taxes

The tradeoffs

Who this fits

Best for: Buyers drawn to a genuinely diversified aerospace-and-tech economy, real (if pricey) access to Rockies ski country via a major international airport, and a dense, walkable downtown built around all four major pro sports leagues -- who can clear the real, current affordability gap between Denver's median home price and its median household income.

Maybe not for you if: Buyers on a tight budget should weigh Denver's real affordability gap seriously -- the median home price sits well above what the median metro household income comfortably supports, and rents have risen 46.2% over the trailing decade -- and homeowners-insurance-sensitive buyers should factor in Colorado's "Hail Alley" status and the nation's 4th-highest average premium before assuming Denver's outdoor-lifestyle draw comes cheap.