However, Colorado is bucking the decreasing trend.
Jon Leckie, a researcher with Rent, says the Centennial State has seen prices go up by a whopping 4.39 percent on a monthly basis since March. “It was one of the biggest monthly increases that we saw,” Leckie says of the change.
He adds that Rent typically expects to see a 2 to 4 percent increase each month, with anything above 4 percent being considered quite high. Leckie also points out that rent increases from March 2021 to the present have added up to about a $300 total increase in people's monthly bills — which can be hard on budgets.
“I like to convert to wages,” Leckie says. “It’s about an 8.5 percent increase on a yearly basis, and I don't know many people who are seeing that kind of increase in their wages over that time. It's really cutting into people's budgets.”
That’s certainly true in Denver, where tenants are unionizing and filing lawsuits against building management, in part because of the exorbitant prices they’re paying for poorly maintained residences.
In fact, the Denver metro area — which includes Denver, Aurora and Lakewood, in accordance with United States Department of Housing and Urban Development classifications — saw the ninth-highest year-over-year increase in the country, at 6.97 percent in March, according to Rent.
“It's actually been up in the metro for the last two months,” Leckie notes. “It’s sort of the highest they've been at least going back to 2021.”
Things have gotten so pricey that it's now more expensive to rent in Denver than in larger cities like Philadelphia and Chicago, according to Rent’s April Rent Report, published on April 20.
In its May 17 report, the research group finds that Colorado’s median rent is $2,724. Leckie shared on May 1 that metro Denver’s median rent is $2,797 and $2,306 in the city proper — $400 over the national median of $1,967.
So what can you actually get in metro Denver for the national median rent or the Denver median rent? And what can people afford if that number is still too high for their budgets?
Thousands of rentals available at the national median
According to Apartments.com, there are a little over 6,100 apartments available for $1,967 or less. Of course, that doesn’t include utilities or parking charges.Ironically, the second listed result is for the Cedar Run Apartments, at 888 South Oneida Street in the Washington Virginia Vale neighborhood, which experienced a fire in one of its buildings in December — and allegedly is in a constant state of disrepair.
Also of note, many of the apartments in the Apartments.com group may fall above the $1,967 range on account of the site allowing listings in the search results where the low end of the price range meets the maximum rent asked for. For example, AMLI Denargo Market — the first large-scale building to earn its rental license in Denver — is included in the results, but its apartments range from $1,799 to $2,422.
What can you get for the Denver median?
By raising the maximum rent to $2,797 to capture apartments that sit at Denver’s median, renters can find an additional 4,000 places on Apartments.com, for a total of 10,507 units. More choices, but also more dollars.Search results like these come with options in nearly every area of Denver and a number of spots in the suburbs. With that maximum, there tend to be fewer apartments in the range that technically exceeds the search terms.
The 7575 Town Center Apartments, in the Central Park neighborhood — where conditions got so bad that residents conducted their own survey to catalogue its many problems, from stolen packages to flooding — are included in this search, with a range of $1,606 to a head-scratching $11,839.
Good luck with a $1,500 budget
Not everyone in Denver makes the national median in wages, so what happens if the maximum rent is decreased to $1,500 — about $500 less than the national median and $1,200 less than Denver’s median rent? Unfortunately, the options get much narrower, with only 1,869 results on Apartments.com.The range includes the very low end at Auraria Student Lofts, for $899. But former residents warn that going in for the discount isn't such a great bargain, as people are paired with strangers; the elevators just can’t seem to stay operable; and the owners are currently embroiled in a bankruptcy proceeding over the building.
It also includes Mint Urban Infinity, whose residents made a bid on May 18 for class certification in a lawsuit over breaches of lease and the state Warrant of Habitability. There, prices all fit into the under-$1,500 range — costing between $1,003 and $1,437.
Renters, be warned: Leckie says prices usually go up in the summer and peak in August before eventually falling back down slightly in the winter again. So get those leases signed fast.
