Apartment rent increases in metro Denver may have finally slowed enough to avoid eroding household buying power, according to the latest Denver Metro Apartment Vacancy and Rent survey from the Apartment Association of Metro Denver.
The average apartment rent in metro Denver rose to $1,528 in the second quarter, an annual increase of 2.4 percent from the $1,480.74 average rent last year. That’s below the overall inflation rate, and more importantly, below the average pace of wage gains.
The second quarter is a busy one for turnover in apartments, making it a good barometer of the health of the rental market.
Ron Throupe, an associate professor of real estate at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business and the report’s author, said the increases are the slowest for a second quarter since 2011.
Supply and demand also appear to be in balance, with the vacancy rate dropping from 6 percent a year ago to 5 percent in the second quarter. The market doesn’t appear to be glutted, which would drive developers away, or undersupplied, which would result in rent spikes.
“The Denver metro apartment market continues to show strong demand with 1,723 net units absorbed,” Throupe said in a press release.
So long as the national economy holds up, that shouldn’t change, he added.
