Metro Denver Places Where Rent Is Still Rising

The November rent report from Apartment List continues a recent trend, with prices falling by modest amounts across most of metro Denver after a long period of sky-high spikes. But two Denver-Boulder communities are still seeing rent increases – one a town that’s among the more affordable along the urban corridor, the other considerably pricier.

Within Denver city limits, median monthly rent slid by a full 1 percent in October, the most recent month for which statistics are available, following a 0.2 dip in September that stopped the rises seen throughout the first eight months of 2022.

While October’s median one-bedroom rent of $1,420 in Denver was still 2.4 percent higher than it was at this time last year, that represented a major improvement over the costs in July (8.8 percent higher), for example. Moreover, the city’s current annual increase is below that of both Colorado as a whole (4.1 percent) and the United States generally (5.7 percent). And only one of fifteen Denver-Boulder cities tracked by Apartment List had a lower annual rent growth than Denver: Parker, at 2.1 percent.

The annual rent hikes in the remaining towns ranged from a low of 2.6 percent in Broomfield to a high of 7.5 percent in Lone Tree, which also had the largest monthly rent increase, 2.1 percent, as well as the spendiest median-two-bedroom price tag, $2,370. The only other spot to register a rise was Wheat Ridge, climbing by 0.7 percent in October. Yet median one-bedroom rent in Wheat Ridge was $1,160, tied with Englewood for the most cost-friendly spot in greater Denver.

Here’s the complete rundown:

Not on this roster is Boulder, the subject of its own Apartment List rent report – and the latest stats show that median rent prices there dropped by 1.4 percent in the latest roundup, after remaining flat the previous month. The one-bedroom median price went from $1,534 to $1,506, and the two-bedroom median price slipped from $1,946 to $1,919.

That translates to monthly savings of $28 and $27 and an annual break of more than $300 for both one- and two-bedrooms in Boulder. And less than a year after the Marshall fire destroyed more than 1,000 residential structures in Boulder County, every dollar helps.