A weak housing market pushed apartment rents higher in many Western cities during the third quarter as more people decided to lease rather than buy, according to a report Thursday from RealFacts Inc., a Novato, Calif.-based research firm.
But monthly apartment rents along the Front Range, with the exception of metro Denver, bucked the trend by moving lower during the quarter.
Apartment rents in the Denver-Aurora metro area rose 0.8 percent during the third quarter, from the same quarter a year ago, to an average of $856.
Average rents during the same period fell 0.3 percent in Colorado Springs to $708; 3.8 percent in Boulder to $938; and 6.7 percent in Fort Collins- Loveland to $780.
RealFacts surveys apartment communities with 100 or more units each quarter. Its survey included 339 communities representing 102,972 units in the Denver-Aurora area.
“It has been pretty flat,” said RealFacts spokesman Chris Bates of the Denver market. By comparison, rents were rising at a 10.5 percent annual rate in Silicon Valley, Calif.; 7.5 percent in the San Francisco Bay Area; and 7.4 percent in Los Angeles and Orange County.
Although rents are not rising as quickly here as in other areas, vacant units are being filled in the Colorado cities surveyed, and landlord concessions are dropping, Bates said.
That, in turn, may give area landlords a stronger hand in passing on future rent increases.
Average occupancy rates were 97.8 percent in Fort Collins, 97.4 percent in Boulder, 94.4 percent in Denver-Aurora and 91.1 percent in Colorado Springs, according to RealFacts.
Within the Denver-Aurora metro area, average rents moved lower on an annual basis in Highlands Ranch, Castle Rock, Golden and Denver proper. Rents rose the most in Aurora, Lakewood, Northglenn and Westminster.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
