Metro Denver apartment rent increases continue to moderate as added supply and slower job growth are helping push up vacancy rates, according to a rent survey from Axiometrics.
Apartment rents in October rose at a still-robust 7.7 percent average annual pace from October 2014. But in September, rents were increasing at an 8.8 percent annual pace, and from September 2014 to July 2015 they were rising at double-digit annual rates.
The average metro Denver apartment rent in October actually dropped $8 from September to $1,351 but is $96 above the rents averaged a year earlier.
Earlier this year, metro Denver regularly ranked in the top three of the country’s 50 largest cities for rent increases. But in October, it ranked ninth. Increases are moving closer to the national average, which was 4.9 percent in October.
The region’s apartment occupancy rate in October was a tight 94.9 percent, down from the 96.1 percent rate a year earlier.
Axiomatics vice president of research Stephanie McCleskey warned that job growth, which has fallen sharply this year compared with last, will need to pick up for the historically large supply of new apartments hitting the market to get absorbed.
More than 10,000 apartment units have come online this year and another 7,749 are expected to become available in 2016. Many come in more urban areas with higher rents.
“Job growth will need to improve to bring demand up to the level of supply,” she said in a statement.
