Average apartment rents continued to soften in January, marking the fifth consecutive month that metro Denver has seen rents decrease, according to a survey from Axiometrics, a Dallas-based firm that monitors trends in apartments and student housing.
The average effective apartment rent was $1,321 per month per unit in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood area in January. That was down $2 from December’s average and $43 below the peak reached in August.
Measured across the year though, apartment rents in metro Denver were still $56 higher a month on average than in January 2015.
Rents back then were rising at an 11.8 percent clip, but they were only rising at a 4.4 percent annual rate this past January, which was close to the U.S. average of 4.3 percent.
Axiometrics estimates that the occupancy rate for apartments in metro Denver was 94.3 percent in January, down from 94.5 percent in December and 95.5 percent in January 2015.
The company attributes the softening rental market to the new supply that is hitting the market.
Axiometrics forecasts supply will outstrip demand at least through the first half of 2017.
