First-quarter apartment vacancy rates in 2023 are at 5.6% in the seven-county metro Denver area.
That's according to a new report from the Apartment Association of Metro Denver.
About 22,673 apartments of 404,880 units in the area are empty. Counties in the mix include Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson.
Most of those counties saw an increase in vacancy rates, though Denver County dropped to 5.5% and both Arapahoe and Jefferson counties remained flat.
"Buildings constructed since 2020 had the highest vacancy at 6.8%," according to the report. "Those constructed prior to 1970 had the lowest vacancy at 4.9%. Buildings with '200 to 349′ units had the highest vacancy rate at 5.8%. Buildings with '50 to 99' units had the lowest vacancy rate of 4.4%."
Apartments built in the past three years cost nearly $850 more a month than apartments built before 1970.
The average cost of those built between 2020 and now is $2,414. Apartments built before 1970 are running an average of $1,569 a month.
In short, the report shows there may be more demand for lower-cost, older homes than newer, more expensive ones.
While the vacancy rate has increased by nearly a percent since the first quarter of 2022, rent itself has increased to an average of $1,838.
From the last quarter of 2022 to the first of 2023, average rent rose by $8, hardly a monumental jump. Rent by square foot rose by two cents to $2.15. The current median rent is $1,774.
Rent has fallen slightly since it peaked in the third quarter of 2022.
"The market has been very stable over the past nine months, with very flat rental rates and a relatively slow increase in vacancy," explained Mark Williams, executive vice president for the Apartment Association of Metro Denver in a statement. "When the vast majority of costs are increasing all around us, to have rental housing be so stable is good news for renters and housing providers."
Yet eviction-filing rates continue to rise higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to Denver County Court records.
In March, 1,195 tenants faced eviction in court in the City and County of Denver alone. In the same month in 2019, there were 708.
March saw more eviction filings than any other month since at least January 2019. That's not a fluke. The past five months have been the top five months for eviction filings since January 2019.
This number does not mean sheriff deputies threw out all those people, and it also does not reflect all tenants who were warned about facing eviction and decided to leave their homes on their own free will.
Thousands of new homes will be available within the year.
There are currently 43,000 new apartments under construction, according to the report. Of those, 25% will be available to tenants this year.
"The report shows 3,571 new apartments were added into the rental housing market in Q1, that compares to about 2,700 units per quarter over the past 4 years." explained the report's researcher, Cary Bruiteg with Apartment Insights, in a statement. "More new units help drive the vacancy rate up which helps take pressure off rental rates. If vacancy rates continue to increase, and given the large construction pipeline they probably will, then rents are likely to either remain flat or continue to decrease."
