Apartment rent increases in metro Denver continued to moderate in August, and the chances are strong that desperate landlords may cut more deals in the months ahead, according to two new rent surveys.
The median rent for a one-bedroom unit in Denver listed on apartment search engine Abodo fell 2.1 percent to $1,509 the past month, while the rent for two-bedroom units fell 2.64 percent to $1,880
“Apartment vacancies are creeping up and with the huge amount of new developments and apartment starts in Denver, developers are offering concessions in the local market,” said Sam Radbil, a spokesman for the company, based in Madison, Wis.
So many units are hitting the market that more developers and property managers are offering price breaks and free months of rent to fill vacant units, he said. Also, with the peak moving season over, leasing managers know the competition will become more intense for the smaller number of tenants out there.
“This isn’t just a trend seen in Denver. All across the country concessions are being made as vacancy rates rise. We expect to see a continued slide in price into the fall season,” Radbil said.
Apartment rents declined even more month-over-month in Aurora and Lakewood, two of the metro’s more affordable suburbs, as well as in Littleton and Glendale. They continued to rise in Englewood and Westminster, the Abodo rent survey found.
Surveys that use listings from online sites tend to skew toward new luxury units. Another rent survey from Apartment List, which measures rent increases across the entire market, measured a 0.2 percent increase in rents between August and July.
For the year, it estimates rents are up only 0.1 percent in metro Denver versus a 1 percent gain nationwide. For the past 12 months, rents have been trying to rebound from slight year-over-year declines in metro Denver, according to Apartment List.
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Denver’s apartment rents remain a bargain compared to the major metros in California and New York, where monthly rents top $4,000. But compared to the rents available in other mountain states, Denver might as well be Manhattan, according to a study last week from RentCafe.
Denver claimed eight of the top 10 zip codes for highest apartment rents in an eight-state region that includes Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming.
North Cherry Creek, ZIP code 80206, has the highest apartment rents in the mountain region at $2,435 a month. Boulder’s 80301 was fifth with an average rent of $2,044 and Littleton’s 80120 was 10th at $1,817.
Too high? Wichita, an eight-hour drive east from Denver, has several zip codes where apartment rents average $500 or less a month, the lowest of any metro in the country. But then again, it is Wichita.
