Colorado looks like it can run a marathon, but our balance sheet is wheezing. The Denver Post laid out how Colorado residents are carrying the heaviest per-person debt burden in the country, even ahead of places like California and Hawaii.
This is statewide, and it is not just one kind of debt either. Mortgages lead the pack, then come auto loans, student loans, and the credit-card stuff that sneaks up and bites.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Colorado’s per-person debt burden was $90,760 in 2023, highest among states in the study cited.
- From 2013 to 2023, Colorado had the biggest dollar increase in personal debt: $30,890, and a 51.6% increase.
- The analysis cited used credit data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, via a study from Debt Relief Karma.
- About three-quarters of household debt is mortgage-related, and home prices rose sharply from 2013 to 2023 (128% statewide, 138% metro Denver per the index cited).
- Credit cards, rising rents, inflation, and higher costs for basics are pushing more younger adults to seek debt consolidation help.
My Bottom Line
Colorado’s debt problem is not a mystery. When housing, vehicles, and daily life all get more expensive at the same time, a lot of people put the difference on plastic and pray the math works out.
If your costs rise faster than your income, debt becomes the “plan” whether you like it or not.
The most honest line in this whole story is that there are “those who pay interest and those who collect it.” Right now, too many Coloradans are stuck paying. The lenders do not need a pep talk. They are doing just fine.
And yes, there’s “good debt” and “bad debt.” But even “good” debt turns rotten when prices outrun paychecks and the margin for error goes to zero. Then one vet bill, one set of tires, one rent hike, and you are negotiating with your Visa card like it’s your landlord.
You can’t build wealth while you’re feeding interest payments like they’re a second household.
The fix is not shaming people. It’s getting serious about affordability, savings, and not pretending every big purchase has to be the biggest possible version of itself. Start with a real household budget, keep emergency reserves as best you can, and if you consolidate, don’t use the breathing room to run the tab right back up. That’s not progress, that’s a treadmill with a billing department.
