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 the Apartment Association of Metro Denver and the Colorado Division of Housing.
The report said that as vacancies have become more scarce, the area’s 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 area with the largest year-over-year increase was Boulder/Broomfield with an increase of 6.6 percent from $901 to $961.
The smallest increase was in Denver County where the median rent rose 2.1 percent from $801 during 2010’s first quarter to $818 during the first quarter of 2011.
“The growth isn’t nearly what it was before the 2010 recession in Colorado, but we’re looking at some of the strongest rent growth we’ve seen in metro Denver in the past decade,” said Ryan McMaken, Division of Housing spokesman.
McMaken added that the year-over-year growth in median rents outpaced inflation during much 2010, and the “first quarter’s median rent is the highest yet recorded.”
The 2011 first quarter vacancy rates by county were Adams, 5.6 percent; Arapahoe, 6.4 percent; Boulder/Broomfield, 4.9 percent; Denver, 4.8 percent; Douglas, 5.3 percent; and Jefferson, 4.7 percent.
The median rents by county were: Adams, $871; Arapahoe, $825; Boulder/Broomfield, $961; Denver, $818; Douglas, $1,061; and Jefferson, $828.
Gordon Von Stroh, a professor of business at the the University of Denver, and the author of the report, said that although the vacancy rate is near the lowest it’s been in the last decade, it has essentially been “flat” the last three quarters.
Von Stroh’s report noted that the vacancy rate in the first quarter of 2011 was unchanged from 2010’s fourth-quarter rate of 5.5 percent, although the vacancy rate generally falls from the the fourth quarter to the first quarter as a result of seasonal factors.
“It’s likely that weakness in the job market is keeping the vacancy rate from moving lower, but there is nevertheless enough demand to allow for some increases in rent,” said Von Stroh.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
