After suffering a record-breaking spike in prices during the pandemic, renters, at least those who could afford to rent, caught a little good luck in 2023: The market finally cooled off.
That's according to new reports from the online rental marketplaces Zumper and Apartment List, both of whom expect the market to stay cool in 2024.
Median rent in Denver, according to Apartment List, is $1,391 for a one-bedroom and $1,720 for a two-bedroom. That's down nearly 1% from this time last year.
In Denver and other cities in the mountain west, there's a good chance prices will continue to drop in 2024 -- at least, for the affluent.
"Denver, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City are also seeing record numbers of new supply come to market and we expect prices in these markets to fall more quickly than the national average," according to Zumper. "New developments in these cities also lean heavily towards luxury, which means 2024 will be a good time for renters to snag a deal on an amenity-rich apartment that may have been previously out of reach."
People looking to rent and willing to move into a new place will likely be able to get concessions and perks from landlords in 2024 and the number of properties available has risen.
As for cheaper apartments, those will likely continue to be harder to find since fewer are being built and the Denver metro area continues to be more than 60,000 units behind what's needed in income-restricted housing.
Nationwide, 2024 saw record levels of new construction. Cranes continue to dominate the Denver skyline.
With a drop in permitting applications in 2023, that trend of new construction will likely slow by 2025.
Not all of the 2023 renter news was good.
By November, the city saw a hike in eviction cases in Denver County Court, as pandemic-era federal rental assistance funds dried up.
By December, the city had seen more than a thousand more eviction case filings than in any other year on record.
Mayor Mike Johnston's administration has dedicated more eviction prevention funds than ever from the city budget in 2024, but not enough to close the gap between how much rental assistance funding came from pandemic-era federal money.
Between evictions and the arrival of migrants, homelessness could rise in 2023, and service providers are already scrambling to help.
While home ownership has long been seen as a key part of the American Dream, that's shifting -- especially as mortgage rates have risen.
The Denver Metro Association of Realtors reports the housing market is slower than usual in an already slow time of year -- and all of 2023 was more sluggish than normal.
Many people, particularly homeowners enjoying the historically low interest rates from the past few years, are resisting selling their current places and shouldering currently higher interest rates.
These local trends are reflected nationally, and the dream of homeownership has faded for most renters.
"For the second year in a row, more than half of renters believe 'the new American dream is being untethered to home ownership,'" according to surveys from Zumper. "And, more than 69 percent of renters said rising interest rates have deterred them from buying or looking into buying a home."
