From the beginning of the pandemic until now, rent prices in the City of Denver have shot up -- but not as fast as prices in the suburbs.
Out of 17 nearby cities, from Broomfield to Westminster, Denver has seen the slowest growth in rent, according to data from the rental site Apartment List.
Rent in Denver County has risen by a staggering 16%. But that's nothing compared to Castle Rock, where it has risen by 29.9%, or Westminster where it has risen by 28.3%.
On average, Denver suburbs saw a 25.1% increase in rent, nine percentage points higher than the city.
The data reflects an early pandemic trend where people moved out of cities for more space in the suburbs, according to Rob Warnock, a researcher with Apartment List.
And this isn't just happening in Colorado.
"Over the past two and a half years, the rental market has been on a rollercoaster ride, as the pandemic has shaken up the ways that we live and work," Warnock wrote to Denverite in an email. "As remote (work) has made proximity to the office less of a concern for housing choice, one result has been that the suburbs of large metros have been experiencing notably faster rent growth than the core cities that they surround."
Nationwide, Apartment List estimates that since March 2020, rents have risen by an average of 19.8% in city cores of large metros. Suburbs, in contrast, have spiked by an average of 27.2%.
One issue with the data is that it does not reflect rent growth in city centers versus suburban-like parts of town.
In the first year of the pandemic, Denver was just one of three metro cities that saw a drop in rent. Denver plummeted 3.7%, Arvada dropped 2% and Glendale fell 5.2%.
Growth in the suburbs hardly staggered, but averaged out at a steady 1.8%, according to Warnock.
Most of the rental hikes happened in 2021 and 2022.
"Among the 39 metros that we analyzed (nationally), 33 have seen rent growth in the suburbs outpacing that of the core cities," Warnock said. "On average, rent growth has been fastest in the suburbs that sit farthest from the urban core."
Happily, for Denver renters, the city saw its first slight drop in prices, month-over-month, in recent memory at .2%. The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment costs $1,441, and for a two-bedroom rent is $1,782.
