Average apartment rents in metro Denver rose 1.5 percent in September from a year earlier, the slowest annual gain measured since March 2010, according to a report Wednesday from Dallas-based Axiometrics.
Average apartment rents fell from $1,407 in August to $1,394 in September, and the occupancy rate dropped from 95 percent to 94.7 percent. A year ago, apartment rents were increasing at an 8.9 percent clip in Denver and nationally they rose 2.6 percent.
“The double-digit rent growth Denver saw last summer (2015) was unsustainable,” Stephanie McCleskey, vice president of research for Axiometrics, said in the report.
McCleskey is forecasting that after a sluggish 2017, apartment rent increases will accelerate again in early 2018 and Denver, now lagging, will again report some of strongest rent growth.
Submarkets with the highest annual rent increases last month were central and southwest Aurora, up 4.4 percent; far southeast Denver, up 4 percent; north Lakewood, up 3 percent and Jefferson County, up 2.9 percent.
The Axiometric report confirms the cooling trend that the Denver Metro Area Apartment Vacancy and Rent Report, released Tuesday, found. Average monthly apartment rents were $1,368 in the third quarter, down $3.36 from the second quarter. That was the first time average rents declined between those two quarters in metro Denver since 2007, according to the report prepared by the University of Denver.
