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Renting a Home Is Better Than Buying One in Denver and Beyond, Report Says

A new report says that renting a home is more affordable than buying one in fifteen of seventeen Colorado counties analyzed.
This two-bedroom, one-bathroom home at 4312 Umatilla Street went for $400,000 in June.

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A new analysis reveals that renting a three-bedroom property is more affordable than buying a median-priced home in the vast majority of Colorado counties surveyed, including all of those in the Denver metro area.

The information is gleaned from data assembled for the “2019 Rental Affordability Report” and supplied to Westword by ATTOM Data Solutions.

The folks at ATTOM crunched the numbers related to 755 counties across the country, drawing from newly released fair-market rent data for 2019 gathered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as wage figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and public-record sales-deed info assembled by ADS researchers.

Among the major takeaways: Renting is more affordable than buying in 442 of the counties studied, or 59 percent of the total, partly because of fast-rising real estate costs. Home prices were found to be outpacing wages in 80 percent of housing markets in the United States.

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The situation is even more extreme in Colorado. Seventeen counties were included in the report. Of those, buying was a better deal than renting in only two, or just under 13 percent – making renting cheaper in more than 87 percent of the Colorado counties.

Moreover, renting is more affordable in the most populous Colorado counties studied, in keeping with a national trend; that was also the case in the country’s eighteen largest counties by population, and 37 of the top forty. That’s despite several years of sky-high rent in Denver, where prices have only recently started to moderate. In the meantime, Denver has registered some of the worst home affordability in the nation, though experts see signs of improvement heading into springtime.

The two Colorado counties where buying makes more sense are located in the southeastern quadrant of the state and have relatively modest populations.

Continue to see data for all seventeen Colorado counties included in the study, with those in the Denver metro area near the top and the two where buying bests renting at the bottom.

Related

This three-bedroom, one-and-three-quarters-bathrooms property at 4190 Lowell Boulevard sold for 5,000 this past year.

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County: Broomfield

Metropolitan Statistical Area: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood

Population: 60,699

Housing Units: 24,710

2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $2,302

2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $2,211

2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +4.1 percent

2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 33.4 percent

Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT

County: Douglas

Metropolitan Statistical Area: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood

Population: 306,974

Housing Units: 115,068

2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $2,302

2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $2,211

2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +4.1 percent

2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 45.4 percent

Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT

County: Jefferson

Metropolitan Statistical Area: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood

Population: 552,344

Housing Units: 232,477

2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $2,302

2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $2,211

2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +4.1 percent

2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 49.1 percent

Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT

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County: Arapahoe

Metropolitan Statistical Area: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood

Population: 608,310

Housing Units: 241,431

2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $2,302

2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $2,211

2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +4.1 percent

2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 44.2 percent

Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT

County: Adams

Metropolitan Statistical Area: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood

Population: 471,206

Housing Units: 165,046

2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $2,302

2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $2,211

2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +4.1 percent

2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 52.1 percent

Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT



County: Denver

Metropolitan Statistical Area: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood

Population: 649,654

Housing Units: 294,191

2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $2,302

2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $2,211

2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +4.1 percent

2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 41.9 percent

Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT

County: Boulder

Metropolitan Statistical Area: Boulder

Population: 310,032

Housing Units: 129,739

2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $2,318

2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $2,220

2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +4.4 percent

2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 43.3 percent

Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT

County: El Paso

Metropolitan Statistical Area: Colorado Springs

Population: 655,024

Housing Units: 261,745

2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,745

2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,656

2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +2.9 percent

2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 40.8 percent

Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT



Related

This two-bedroom, one-bathroom house at 5211 Tejon Street was purchased for 5,000 in 2018.

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County: Teller

Metropolitan Statistical Area: Colorado Springs

Population: 23,240

Housing Units: 12,730

2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,628

2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,582

2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +2.9 percent

2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 51.9 percent

Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT

County: Larimer

Metropolitan Statistical Area: Fort Collins

Population: 318,277

Housing Units: 136,851

2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,923

2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,712

2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +12.3 percent

2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 47.7 percent

Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT



County: Weld

Metropolitan Statistical Area: Greeley

Population: 270,948

Housing Units: 99,226

2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,543

2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,468

2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +5.1 percent

2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 37.3 percent

Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT

County: Garfield
Metropolitan Statistical Area: Glenwood Springs
Population: 57,076
Housing Units: 23,338
2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,809
2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,775
2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +1.9 percent
2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 46.1 percent
Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT

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County: La Plata
Metropolitan Statistical Area: Durango
Population: 53,182
Housing Units: 26,365
2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,634
2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,645
2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: -0.7 percent
2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 44.7 percent
Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT

County: Mesa
Metropolitan Statistical Area: Grand Junction
Population: 147,834
Housing Units: 63,472
2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,297
2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,296
2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +0.1 percent
2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 36.5 percent
Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT

County: Eagle
Metropolitan Statistical Area: Edwards
Population: 52,576
Housing Units: 31,474
2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,921
2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,950
2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: -1.5 percent
2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 52.8 percent
Cheaper to Buy or Rent: RENT

County: Pueblo

Metropolitan Statistical Area: Pueblo

Population: 161,519

Housing Units: 69,959

2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,307

2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,168

2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +11.9 percent

2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 37.7 percent

Cheaper to Buy or Rent: BUY

Related

County: Fremont

Metropolitan Statistical Area: Cañon City

Population: 46,809

Housing Units: 19,240

2019 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,204

2018 Three-Bedroom Rent: $1,145

2019 v. 2018 Three-Bedroom Rent Percentage Change: +5.2 percent

2019 Rent Affordability (Percentage of Average Wages to Rent): 40.0 percent

Cheaper to Buy or Rent: BUY

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