Apartment Vacancies Increase

The Apartment Association of Metro Denver released their first quarter report last week and they found that average rent increased 2.2% in the first quarter to $1536. But the vacancy rate rose to 5.9%, up from 5.3% in the 4th quarter. This data was pulled BEFORE the Virus hit us hard though. So, what will the 2nd quarter report look like? First, everyone needs a place to live and second landlords are currently not allowed to evict tenants for financial reasons. Thus, the vacancy rate may change very little; but I expect rents won’t increase in the 2nd quarter when they normally do increase. 

Finally, currently only about 7,500 new apartments are expected to be completed this year, the first year below 10,000 in I think 5 years. Plus, another 15k are in the pipeline for 2021 and 2022. Will these numbers drop? Probably so, for at least a short time.