Arvada’s Current Housing Supply, and Why it Matters for Business

Housing affordability is a business issue as much as a social one. When workers can’t afford to live near where they work, businesses feel it directly: longer commutes for employees, higher turnover, hiring challenges, and talent shortages. 

The Greater Arvada Chamber shares information about the city’s supply of housing with our network each year to help understand the gap for our workforce and how the Chamber, alongside our partners, can help close it.  This work lives within our B.O.L.D. 2026 Housing Goal to ensure workers have access to housing within reasonable proximity of their jobs.

Arvada Housing Needs

There is not enough housing availability in Arvada. According to the most recent DRCOG Regional Housing Needs Assessment, Arvada will need to develop at least 4,990 new housing units by 2032 to keep up with job and population growth. It is recommended that 3,000 units are targeted at 0-50% Area Median Income (AMI)¹ households and 2,000 units aimed at 60% AMI² and above. In addition, according to Lightcast, Arvada only has a 3% vacancy rate, meaning the majority of current housing stock is occupied.

Four Facts from the City of Arvada’s 2024 Housing Needs Assessment: 

• 62% of in-commuters have considered living in Arvada, but were unable to find attainable housing to buy or rent within their price range. 

• There are 52,952 total housing units in Arvada (Census ACS); of those units, over 70% of all housing units in Arvada are detached, single-family homes with a median sales price of $632,000 per the City of Arvada and Redfin. 

• A household would need to earn between $168,000 – $201,000 a year to afford to purchase a home in Arvada. The median Arvada household income is $124,000.

•  Almost 40% of Arvada renters have incomes between 50%-120% AMI, yet only a small percentage (6%) of homes sold in Arvada are in an attainable price range for this group (City of Arvada). 

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Not Just an Arvada Problem

These housing challenges extend well beyond Arvada’s borders. The Jeffco Housing Blueprint found that, as of 2019, Jefferson County was short more than 20,000 housing units across the county to meet population and employment demand. Additionally, Jefferson County has identified the need to add roughly 49,572 new units of housing by 2040 (about 2,750 per year) to keep pace with projected population and employment growth. 

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The Economic Case for Housing: Why Businesses Should Pay Attention

Housing is an economic development tool. More housing means more workers can live near their jobs, more money stays in the local economy, and businesses can strengthen. A study by the National Multifamily Housing Council found that every 100 units built generate an average of $16 million in local economic activity through resident spending and support 85 jobs. 

When housing is sufficient, it’s also easier for businesses to maintain and grow their operations because they’re dealing with less turnover and can fill jobs more quickly. According to Lightcast data, roughly 62% of Arvada’s workforce currently commutes from outside of the city, with over 40% of Arvada’s commuting workforce driving 30-minutes or more one-way. Labor market data shows that many essential workers and middle-income earners can not afford to live within reasonable proximity to their jobs, leading to high turnover rates for businesses and difficulty finding qualified talent.

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What Kind of Housing Do We Need to Support Middle Income Earners?

Research and evidence support the idea that adding increased, diverse housing supply lowers housing prices, especially in metropolitan areas where markets are tight.

According to the Urban Institute, a shortage of housing across the spectrum (affordable housing, middle-income housing, market-rate housing, for-sale, for-rent, diverse types of housing stock, etc.) has led to large increases in housing costs for both renters and homeowners.

The Upjohn Institute uses the term “migration chain” to describe how building new housing decreases the cost of housing for a region. In this process, as people leave their current homes and move into new units, these vacated units loosen the market for that type of unit, which lowers prices and benefits the community. They identified that building 100 new market-rate units in an area opens up the equivalent of 40-70 units of affordable housing for low and middle-income earners in a metro-region, depending on the AMI of that neighborhood. For middle-income earners (60%-120% AMI) especially, research indicates that building more housing, including market-rate housing, will make homes more affordable throughout the region and offer these workers income-aligned options to rent or buy.

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What the Greater Arvada Chamber is doing to Ensure Our Workforce can Live Near Work

• Support businesses in engaging with efforts to advance area housing developments. Over the last year, the Greater Arvada Chamber and local businesses advocated for the development of Welby Gardens in Arvada, Ridge Road in Wheat Ridge, Allendale in Arvada, and Zerger in Westminster.
• Take positions on state housing bills consistent with our Housing Goal of ensuring access to income-aligned housing so workers can attain housing within reasonable proximity to their jobs.
• Provide opportunities for businesses to engage in discussions about future development in Arvada, including housing.
• Connect businesses and their employees with resources that lower the cost of homeownership, along with the information and education needed to attain homeownership.

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1. 0-50% AMI in Jefferson County is equivalent to approximately $75,000/year or below household income depending on household size, CHFA Income Limits by Year
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2.  60% AMI in Jefferson County is equivalent to between approximately $60,500-$93,000/year household income depending on household size ↩︎