Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs is the home rule city that is the county seat of, and the most populous city in, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. The city had a population of 478,961 at the 2020 census, a 15.02% increase since 2010. Colorado Springs is the second-most populous city and most extensive city in the state of Colorado, and the 40th-most-populous city in the United States. It is the principal city of the Colorado Springs metropolitan area, which had 755,105 residents in 2020, and the second-most prominent city of the Front Range Urban Corridor. It is located in east-central Colorado on Fountain Creek, 70 miles (113 km) south of Denver.Wikipedia

The Mountain West has experienced one of the most dramatic demographic transformations of any American region over the past fifteen years. Colorado's Front Range — Fort Collins through Denver to Colorado Springs — has absorbed hundreds of thousands of new residents drawn by mountain access and a strong multi-sector economy across aerospace, energy, biotech, and tech. Salt Lake City's startup ecosystem has grown quietly into one of the most productive per-capita in the country. Boise and Missoula have emerged from obscurity into genuine destination cities.

The cost of this transformation has been housing. Denver and Bozeman have seen appreciation that rivals coastal markets, driven by limited developable land, in-migration pressure, and the sustained appeal of ski slope and trailhead access. Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho retain large stretches of genuine affordability and open space — but tradeoffs include isolation, limited rural healthcare, and economies still dependent on extractive industries. Wildfire risk, driven by worsening drought cycles, is an increasingly material homebuying consideration across the entire region.