Second step: cry.
Yeah, you need to earn $72,847.39 to afford a house in Denver, according to HSH.com's analysis of mortgage costs and National Association of Realtors data on home prices.
That assumes that you're able to make a 20 percent down payment, too. If you make only a 10 percent down payment on a house, you should be earning $86,253.
Area median income is $56,000. Household median income gets us a little closer, at $69,205, but half of area households still earn less than that.
Anybody got $72,000.39, by the way? I'm good for the $847.