Colorado Cost of Living: Financial freedom in Pueblo County after being priced out elsewhere
Of 10 major Front Range counties in Colorado, Pueblo County has the cheapest cost of living in nearly all key categories — with the exception of health care costs being the most expensive and transportation running slightly higher than El Paso and Denver counties.
The county’s standing makes sense because Puebloans earn less than Coloradans in other communities. At $102,000 as of April 1, according to federal government statistics, Pueblo County households have the lowest area median income of the 10 counties The Gazette is comparing.
El Paso County’s area median income is $112,000, seven Denver-area counties are at $140,100, and Boulder sits atop the corridor at $150,000, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The cost of housing follows the same pattern. As of February, the most recent figures available, the median listing price of a single-family home in Pueblo County is $349,900.
Compare that to El Paso County’s median listing price of $485,000, or $535,000 in Denver County, or the area’s highest of $799,497 in Boulder County, and you’ll understand why many people are bugging out to live in Pueblo.
In fact, more El Paso County residents move to Pueblo County than residents from any other county in the state, according to the Colorado State Demography Office.
Between 2016 and 2020, 1,343 people left El Paso County to reside in Pueblo County, migration data shows.
People like Tony Maquero. He and his wife spent four years on Colorado Springs’ west side before heading south two years ago.
“Due to the cost of living up there, we were forced to move down to Pueblo,” he said. “Now we are homeowners and save a lot on both time and gas just on the daily commute to and from work.”
While the couple misses the bevy of activities and diversions in Colorado Springs, Maquero said the cost of living was so high that he and his wife needed assistance to get by.
“We never would have been able to afford a house in Colorado Springs, but in Pueblo our monthly mortgage is cheaper than our rent was up there, even without assistance,” he said.
Joanna Harmon also recently relocated to Pueblo from Colorado Springs. Lower expenses enabled her to realize the American dream.
“I bought a home in Pueblo, where I could afford a mortgage,” she said.
Harmon also manages her expenses by eliminating manicures, reducing haircuts, changing her cell phone plan and cutting subscription services.
“I shop at thrift stores and live within my means,” she said.
As Pueblo resident Warren Diodosio said on social media about affordability: “Pueblo County isn’t all that bad.”
The population of Pueblo County was an estimated 169,277 as of July 1, 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s a year-over-year drop of 10,885 residents from 2024, and the lowest population since 2020. More deaths than births partly accounted for the slide, an analysis from the Colorado State Demography Office said.