The apartment vacancy rate in the Denver metro area fell to 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, dropping to the lowest fourth-quarter vacancy rate recorded since 2000, a report released today by the Apartment Association of Metro Denver and the Colorado Division of Housing said.
As vacancy rates moved down, the area’s median rent increased.
During the fourth quarter of 2011, the median rent in metro Denver rose to $870, increasing 2.8 percent from 2010’s fourth- quarter median rent of $846.
“The overall median rent in the Denver area has now increased year over year for eight quarters in a row, and the median rent has increased by almost $60 over that time,” said Ryan McMaken, a spokesman for the Colorado Division of Housing. “The rent growth we’re now seeing is more robust than what we saw during the last expansion between 2002 and 2008.”
Rental losses due to concessions, discounts, delinquencies fell to a 10-year low, dropping to 8.8 percent during the fourth quarter of 2011 from 2010’s fourth quarter rate of 9.8 percent.
As far as the vacancy rate, for the past nine quarters it has fallen compared to the same quarter one year earlier. The last time the quarterly vacancy rate rose year over year was during the third quarter of 2009.
From the fourth quarter of 2010 to the same period of 2011, the vacancy rates dropped in Adams, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties. Vacancies rose in Arapahoe County and in the Boulder/Broomfield area.
“Vacancies continue to decline year over year as demand grows faster than the production of new rental product,” said Ron Throupe, professor of Real Estate at the Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management at the University of Denver.
“However, since the third quarter of 2011, we’re seeing some additional frictional vacancy as tenants move around in response to rising rents,” said Throupe, the author of the vacancy report.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
