The statewide apartment-vacancy rate held steady during the fourth quarter, but Grand Junction’s vacancy rate more than quadrupled from a year earlier.
Apartment vacancies in Colorado dipped slightly to 7.9 percent, down from 8 percent during the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a survey released Thursday by the Colorado Division of Housing. Grand Junction’s rate soared to 13.2 percent, up from 3.1 percent during the quarter a year earlier.
“It really just mirrors an increase in the unemployment rate,” said Gordon Von Stroh, professor of business at the University of Denver and the report’s author.
Grand Junction led the nation with the largest percentage drop in jobs of any metropolitan area last year, according to a recent Labor Department report. The number of nonfarm workers in Grand Junction and surrounding Mesa County fell from 67,100 in December 2008 to 61,900 in December 2009, a 7.7 percent decline.
Vacancy rates varied throughout the metro area. In Colorado Springs, the fourth- quarter vacancy rate was 8.7 percent; Fort Collins/Loveland, 6.3 percent; Greeley, 7.4 percent; and Pueblo, 12.2 percent.
The division released a separate report last month for metro Denver, which showed a 7.9 percent vacancy rate during the fourth quarter.
Margaret Jackson: 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com
