Housing with dignity starts with clear data, thoughtful planning, and better decisions about the places people call home.
Across Colorado, roughly half of renters now spend more than 30% of every paycheck on rent (ACS B25070) — and counting homeowners too, nearly 1 in 3 Colorado households, about 694,000, carry that same cost burden (HUD CHAS 2018–2022). This site draws together the public sources anyone can read — ACS, HUD CHAS, CHFA, and DOLA — so residents, councils, housing authorities, planners, and financing partners can look at the same picture and reach the same conclusions about where new homes will fit. Educational; not a substitute for lender underwriting or legal advice.
The LIHTC Development Workflow
While every LIHTC development is unique, many follow a similar path. This platform uses real Colorado data to walk through an example project, helping you explore what might fit in a given context. Your inputs carry forward so you can build on your analysis — not start over.
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LIHTC Opportunity Finder NEW
Compare Colorado jurisdictions with QCT or DDA designations using public indicators: recent CHFA investment, housing need, basis-boost eligibility, population scale, and civic-capacity context. The weights can be viewed by 4% bond or 9% competitive path so readers can see how the same public facts change under different financing structures.
Go to opportunity finder → -
Select Your Jurisdiction
Set the location for your analysis. This determines AMI income limits, HUD Fair Market Rents, QCT and DDA designations, ACS demographic data, and CHFA development history for your area.
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Housing Needs Assessment
Understand who needs housing — income distribution, cost burden, tenure patterns, and the gap between what exists and what's needed. Includes neighborhood character context, 10-year demand projections, and a recommended AMI distribution for the selected jurisdiction.
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Market Analysis & Site Feasibility
Define a Primary Market Area. Score your site on demand, competition, rent pressure, land supply, and workforce access. Identify QCT and DDA designations that affect your eligible basis. Required for all CHFA applications.
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Scenario Builder
Design your unit mix and income targeting. Set rents by AMI tier against HUD Fair Market Rent limits. Choose between 9% competitive and 4% bond-financed credits. See how your mix addresses 20-year projected demand.
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Deal Calculator
Size your LIHTC capital stack. Calculate equity proceeds, permanent loan capacity from NOI, and the gap that soft sources need to fill. Compare 9% and 4% scenarios side by side. Identify CRA lenders and CHFA programs.
Go to deal calculator →
What is the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit?
The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is the primary federal program financing affordable rental housing — responsible for the construction or rehabilitation of more than 3.5 million homes since 1986. It works by awarding investors dollar-for-dollar federal tax credits in exchange for funding homes restricted to households earning 30%–80% of Area Median Income. States receive a per-capita credit allocation from the IRS, then award those credits competitively through a Qualified Allocation Plan.
In Colorado, CHFA (Colorado Housing and Finance Authority) allocates roughly $30 million in annual tax credits — enough to support 20–30 new developments each year across the state. Projects compete for these credits based on site quality, market need, developer capacity, and community support. Most applicants do not receive an award on their first attempt.
A single LIHTC development typically takes 3–7 years from initial site selection to residents moving in — navigating market studies, equity investor selection, construction financing, and a 15-year compliance period that often extends to 30 years or more. This platform exists to make that path clearer.
Read the complete LIHTC guide for Colorado →Built for the people doing the work.
Newly elected officials
Your community has been asked to support affordable housing — perhaps under Proposition 123, a regional housing plan, or constituent pressure. This platform shows you the actual numbers: how many households in your jurisdiction are cost-burdened, what income levels need the most help, what a realistic development project looks like in your neighborhood, and what your role is in making it happen.
First-time developers
LIHTC development is a multi-year, multi-party process with specific technical requirements at each stage. This reference explains the public workflow from documenting community need and defining a Primary Market Area to understanding how CHFA's QAP evaluates complete applications.
Graduate-level financiers
The deal mechanics are real and unvarnished. Eligible basis calculation, QCT and DDA boost, permanent loan sizing from net operating income, LIHTC equity pricing, and gap analysis — all built from HUD, CHFA, and ACS public data, with 9% and 4% credit scenario comparison and a CRA lender identification tool.
Affordable housing is not just a real estate transaction.
It is a public health intervention. Research consistently links stable, affordable housing to lower rates of emergency room utilization, improved school attendance, reduced child welfare involvement, and greater long-term economic security. The evidence is clear and has been for decades.
It is also a question of community. The working family putting nearly half of every paycheck toward rent, the senior on a fixed income, the neighbor finding their way out of homelessness — these are people you know. They need homes that fit their communities: architecturally, socially, and financially. Not warehouses. Homes.
This reference exists to make the data plainer for everyone who has a hand in building those homes. So a developer can see the same picture a planner does. So an elected official has the words to advocate honestly. So a financier and a community member can read the same sources and reach the same conclusions.
Research sources cited on this site
This reference draws from federal raw data (Census ACS/CHAS, HUD FMR/AMI, BLS LODES) and a curated layer of housing research commonly cited in affordable-housing planning and finance. Each source below links to the current authoritative reference.
From the platform
All insights →Powered by IRS LIHTC Database · U.S. Census ACS · Federal Reserve FRED · HUD/HUDUSER · CHFA Colorado · BLS & BEA · Colorado DOLA