As we've reported, rent prices in metro Denver are finally starting to moderate, but they're still up by a considerable amount over this time last year. The trend continues in the latest Denver rent report for September, which shows that prices are higher than they were twelve months earlier in all nine area communities analyzed. But the numbers are leveling off on a month-to-month basis, where only one of the nine experienced a rent increase of more than 1 percent since August, and costs actually fell in another metro town.
The results come from ApartmentList.com, which has tweaked its methodology in ways that may have impacted the latest data set. The site acknowledges that its previous approach tended to skew toward luxury apartments, and as a result, some digits may have been inflated to some degree. The new process employed for September is thought to be more accurate.
The numbers certainly offer their share of surprises. Note, for instance, that Denver's rent increase since September 2016, estimated at 3 percent, is actually lower than the 3.8 percent registered by Colorado as a whole.
Here's a graphic showing the fluctuations over that span.
Another graphic puts Denver rent costs for a two-bedroom apartment in perspective by comparing them to the prices for such a space in other major American cities.
As you can see, the median tag in Denver, while gulp-worthy in these parts, is actually lower than in plenty of other big communities — and it's less than half of what renters in San Francisco are currently paying.
In Denver proper, rent is up 0.3 percent over last month — and as pointed out above, rent costs are either rising or flat for all but one metro-area community.
Continue to see the latest facts and figures, ranked in descending order based on month-to-month rent changes.
Number 9: Lone Tree
Median one-bedroom price: $1,620
Median two-bedroom price: $2,050
Year-to-year change: +9.4 percent
Month-to-month change: +1.5 percent
Number 8: Arvada
Median one-bedroom price: $1,190
Median two-bedroom price: $1,510
Year-to-year change: +4.8 percent
Month-to-month change: +0.7 percent
Number 7: Thornton
Median one-bedroom price: $1,440
Median two-bedroom price: $1,820
Year-to-year change: +3.5 percent
Month-to-month change: +0.5 percent
Number 6: Aurora
Median one-bedroom price: $1,250
Median two-bedroom price: $1,580
Year-to-year change: +5.8 percent
Month-to-month change: +0.4 percent
Number 5: Denver
Median one-bedroom price: $1,070
Median two-bedroom price: $1,350
Year-to-year change: +3.0 percent
Month-to-month change: +0.3 percent
Number 4: Broomfield
Median one-bedroom price: $1,330
Median two-bedroom price: $1,670
Year-to-year change: +4.0 percent percent
Month-to-month change: +0.2 percent
Number 2 (tie): Westminster
Median one-bedroom price: $1,250
Median two-bedroom price: $1,580
Year-to-year change: +2.8 percent
Month-to-month change: 0 percent
Number 2 (tie): Englewood
Median one-bedroom price: $1,210
Median two-bedroom price: $1,530
Year-to-year change: +2.8 percent
Month-to-month change: 0 percent
Number 1: Littleton
Median one-bedroom price: $1,450
Median two-bedroom price: $1,840
Year-to-year change: +2.7 percent
Month-to-month change: -0.3 percent