Denver's Average Apartment Rents Drop By 1.3% In Third Quarter

Average rents in metro Denver fell by $19 a month during the third quarter, continuing a three-year trend in third-quarter rent decreases, according to the recently released Denver Metro Area Apartment Vacancy and Rent Survey.

Average rents dropped 1.3% to $1,465, down from $1,484 during the second quarter. During the same period, inflation hit 0.5% in Denver, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for the West Region. Adjusting for inflation, rents fell by 1.8% over the last quarter.

“The Denver community has debated how best to provide attainable housing, and the good news is that the market is sorting this out,” Apartment Association of Metro Denver Executive Vice President Mark Williams said. “One of the best pieces of news coming out of this quarterly study is that there are still plenty of apartments renting for less than $1K a month. In fact, the study shows that there are an estimated 29,051 apartments in the Denver metro area that rent for $1K or less.”

Over the past year, average rents increased by 3.8%, which Williams notes is just 0.4% above inflation over that same period. Average rents reached $1,412 during the third quarter of 2017, and the Consumer Price Index for the West Region has increased by 3.4% over the last 12 months.

Historically, rents tend to rise during the third quarter because of dwindling supply in summer months. Increased household formation is also at its highest. During May through September, 18-year-olds graduate from high school and 22-year-olds graduate from college, and many people marry during the summer months.

The only other three-year streak occurred when third-quarter rents dropped by 0.4% in 1986, 1.1% in 1987 and 1% in 1988.

Following a more typical trend, the average vacancy rate for the metro area declined slightly to 5.5% in the third quarter, down from 6% a month earlier. The average vacancy rate has decreased during the third quarter in 29 out of the last 37 years, according to the report.

The 2,570 new apartments built during the third quarter of this year is 40% less than the same quarter last year, when 4,315 new apartments were built. Still, more than 41,600 new apartments have been added in the last four years, which has eased what has been a tight rental market.

“Average vacancy rates, which hit 4.9% in the third quarter of 2014, have increased for every third quarter since then,” Williams said. “This report shows an unmistakable trend toward Denver’s normal vacancy rate of 6.1% for the third quarter.”