The apartment vacancy rate in the Denver metropolitan area for the first quarter of 2011 was 5.5 percent — the lowest first-quarter vacancy rate in a decade, according to data released Thursday by the Apartment Association of Metro Denver and the Colorado Division of Housing.
The report also noted that as vacant apartments have become scarce, median rent has increased.
During the first quarter of 2011, the median rent rose to $858, increasing 2.6 percent from 2010’s first-quarter median rent of $836.
The cost of renting could go higher if unemployment goes down, said Gordon Von Stroh, a University of Denver business professor and the report’s author.
“If employment improves at all, the vacancy rate will drop below 5 percent by September,” Von Stroh said.
Von Stroh and Ryan McMaken, of the Colorado State Division of Housing, said there are a number of factors that have caused the vacancy rate to decline.
McMaken said there are about 20,000 households “forming a year” in Colorado that need apartments.
That requires 3,000 to 4,000 apartment units to be built every year. But that simply is not happening, McMaken said.
Other factors include the large number of people moving to Colorado.
In addition, young couples typically have moved into single-family homes. But now, because of the requirements for higher down payments and tightened credit, many are moving into apartments.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
