DENVER — Demand for Denver-area apartments shot up during the pandemic. But now, years later, supply has caught up.
According to our partners at The Denver Post, between the third and fourth quarters of 2024, average monthly rents in the metro area fell $69 (3.6%), the largest quarterly rent decline on record. Rent fell year-over-year for only the third time in 35 years.
Brian Sanchez, founder and owner of Denver Apartment Finders, said now is a great time to be a renter in the city.
“We don't know how long this is going to last, so now is the time to strike,” he told Denver7 Monday. “For the first time in the last five years, we've seen rates come down dramatically.”
The metro added nearly 20,000 new apartment units last year, about twice as many as it had in recent years.
Politics
Colorado lawmakers roll out bills aimed at tackling high cost of living
The typically slow winter rental season is ice cold this year.
“Now it's beautiful because people are actually able to afford Denver again because prices have lowered by like $200-$400 [per month], and that's before the specials are being applied,” said Sanchez.
Apartments are cutting prices to fill empty units, especially newer buildings with amenities that tend to be more expensive.
“It’s very competitive,” Sanchez added. “I mean, you look around, you see all these brand new buildings. I mean, we have 13 properties in RiNo alone that are offering crazy free rent incentives right now, $1,000 gift card, four weeks free [rent], six weeks free, eight weeks free, 10 weeks free.”
Ryan Corbeil moved into his new apartment building last week and got eight weeks of free rent. That’s something he couldn’t have imagined during his last move in Denver four years ago, when he was 25 minutes from downtown.
“Now I'm able to be in RiNo, a really hot, new, fun destination,” said Corbeil. “So that was great because there's a lot of different options. And I was looking in the Lower Highlands as well as RiNo, and I felt like there was abundance [of units].”
Sanchez said some apartments are offering months of free parking and will even hold units empty for up to 90 days in order to lock in a tenant. But those offers come with trade-offs.
“Big rule of thumb is, the bigger the special, the longer the lease term they're going to want and the sooner they're going to want you to move in,” he explained.
Still, Sanchez said those eyeing a move should move quickly.
“Now is the time to rent in Denver,” he said. “If you're considering even a move between now and the next 90 days, now is the time to lock something down.”
Another change working in renters’ favor is a 2023 change in Colorado law: "A landlord may not require a prospective tenant to have an annual income that exceeds 200% of the annual cost of rent." Previously, most renters needed to make three times the annual rent cost.
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.