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DENVER (KDVR) — Hundreds of bills were passed and signed into law during the 2024 Colorado legislative session, and over a dozen of these will go into effect on July 1.

The new laws range from a ban on residential occupancy limits to a ban on carrying guns in certain areas.

FOX31 has compiled a list of all the new laws going into effect soon.

Occupancy limits

House Bill 24-1007, “Prohibit Residential Occupancy Limits,” stops local governments from enforcing occupancy limits in most situations.

This removes a decades-old law limiting how many members of different families can live together under one roof.

Gender-related crimes

Senate Bill 24-189, “Gender-Related Bias-Motivated Crimes,” adds gender identity and gender expression to the definition of what qualifies for a bias-motivated crime.

It also redefines sexual orientation when it comes to bias-motivated crimes.

Guns in sensitive spaces

Senate Bill 24-131, “Prohibiting Carrying Firearms in Sensitive Spaces,” bans people from carrying firearms in certain places.

Specifically, it prohibits people from knowingly carrying firearms in state legislative buildings, local government buildings and courthouses. The ban also extends to the parking lots of these spaces.

Deepfakes of candidates for office

House Bill 24-1147, “Candidate Election Deepfake Disclosures,” requires the disclosure of the use of deepfakes, or fake images of other people created using artificial intelligence, in ads and other communications related to elections.

For example, if one candidate wanted to use a deepfake image or video of another candidate, they would have to disclose that.

False slates of presidential electors

House Bill 24-1150, “False Slates of Electors,” makes it an explicit crime to falsely create a slate of presidential electors or serve in a false slate of electors.

This would apply to five existing crimes, each of which is punishable by a maximum fine of $10,000.

Protecting victims of sexual offenses

House Bill 24-1072, “Protection of Victims of Sexual Offenses,” changes what evidence is allowed about alleged victims of sexual assault during criminal proceedings.

Specifically, it prohibits any evidence of the victim’s manner of dress or hairstyle, among other things.

Other laws

Ten other laws are going into effect:

• House Bill 24-1443, “Public Trustee Fees”
• House Bill 24-1449, “Environmental Sustainability Circular Economy”
• House Bill 24-1417, “Fee Changes Health-Care Cash Funds”
• House Bill 24-1407, “Community Food Assistance Provider Grant Program”
• House Bill 24-1411, “Increase in Property Tax Exemption Filing Fees”
• House Bill 24-1360, “Colorado Disability Opportunity Office”
• House Bill 24-1081, “Regulate Sale Transfer Sodium Nitrite”
• House Bill 24-1056, “Issuance of Treasurer’s Deeds”
• House Bill 24-1044, “Additional PERA Service Retirees for Schools”
• House Bill 24-1030, “Railroad Safety Requirements”

The next group of laws passed during this year’s legislative session will go into effect on Aug. 7.

Many people have asked me about the plethora of new apartments in our region and if we’ve overbuilt. Most people have heard about the national and regional housing shortage, but they still wonder if we’ve overbuilt apartments and whether vacancy rates are going up.

The answer is nuanced. It is true that our region has a shortage of roughly 8,500 housing units, which includes both multifamily apartments and single-family homes. It is also true that we had an absolute boom in multifamily construction during the pandemic. A high number of permits were pulled, initiating an unprecedented number of new apartment projects.

Most projects take a minimum of two to three years to complete, so we are now facing an absorption problem with many of those apartment buildings finished, creating a glut of new product.

The other major problem, which is the bigger challenge, is that much of the new product is for high-end renters. What we have is a shortage of affordable apartments. Local rents average about $1,500 a month, and the vacancy rate is at 7.2%.

Builders and investors in multifamily projects face higher material and labor costs compared to pre-pandemic levels, higher financing costs due to higher interest rates and increasingly expensive lots. If it’s expensive to build a unit, it will be expensive to rent a unit.

The multifamily market is now adjusting with actual declines now in permits pulled and projects started. Multifamily starts in the U.S. are running nearly 50% below their year-ago pace. This is also true regionally for both single and multifamily permits.

But the conundrum is that less supply isn’t necessarily good, because we do have a structural shortage of housing. Lower supply also means more upward pressure on prices.

The U.S. median price of a new condo has increased from $450,000 in 2018 to $550,000 in 2023. But building mostly high-end housing isn’t the solution. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates the U.S. is short 7.3 million housing units for low-income renters. Many cities have mandates for builders to construct a certain percentage of affordable units, but that’s not enough, and waiting lists are long for prospective tenants.

Montana is experiencing an influx of homebuyers from more expensive regions. To get ahead of the affordability issue, they’ve legalized several meaningful measures like allowing accessory dwelling units on any lot with a detached home. They’ve legalized dense housing and mixed-use buildings within all commercial zones.

Montana’s new laws also allow duplexes on any residential lot. New residential construction only allows one parking space per home. They’ve accelerated the permit review process.

These may seem like radical ideas, but I’d rather get ahead of the problem before middle-class workers and their families decide not to live here.

Other Gazette articles, TV segments and DDES monthly economic dashboards can be found at ddestrategies.org.