DENVER (KDVR) — Gov. Jared Polis has his work cut out for him.

In the first month of his second term, Polis delivered his State of the State address and said Colorado’s housing shortage and unaffordability are high on his agenda.

Colorado had one of the nation’s largest housing shortages in 2019, and the pandemic’s home-buying hysteria has deepened the deficit since then.

The U.S. in general and Colorado in particular have grown to unprecedented levels of unaffordability on the back of a nationwide housing shortage. After the housing market collapsed in 2008, builders stalled developments.

Colorado and the Denver metro area have some of the nation’s deepest housing shortages, according to an analysis of national market data by housing policy organization UpForGrowth.

Colorado had the nation’s seventh-highest underdevelopment estimate, according to the analysis. It is short 127,000 housing units altogether – roughly the population of Westminster.

As the most populous states, California, Florida, Texas and New York have higher housing shortages. Altogether, these four states are short 1.8 million housing units.

Being home to the biggest share of the state’s people, the Denver metro’s housing shortage ranks among the nation’s highest housing shortages as well.

Among more than 300 U.S. metro statistical areas, the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood area is short 69,173 housing units. This is the 16th-highest level of shortage, on par with the Houston and San Diego areas. The Los Angeles, New York City and Miami metro areas have the highest levels in the country.