Colorado apartment vacancies lowest in NoCo

DENVER – Fort
Collins and Loveland reported the lowest apartment vacancy rates among
large metropolitan areas in the state during the fourth quarter of last
year, at 6.3 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively. Greeley’s vacancy
rate of 7.4 percent was also below the statewide average of 7.9
percent, which represented a slight decrease from the overall rate of 8
percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.

According to a report
released Thursday by the Department of Local Affairs’ Division of
Housing, several local markets reported rising vacancies, with Pueblo
and Grand Junction reporting the largest increases to 12.2 percent and
13.2 percent, respectively.

“Grand Junction is certainly the
area that really attracts attention in this report, and it highlights
just how diverse the local economies in Colorado are,´ said the
report’s author, Gordon Von Stroh, professor of business at the
University of Denver. “In Grand Junction, vacancies have basically
tripled, but they’re down in Colorado Springs, and they’re up by about
70 percent in Pueblo. Employment and housing supply are really making a
difference in different regions of the state right now.”

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In
Pueblo, rates rose from 7.2 percent to 12.2 percent year-over-year,
while they rose from 3.1 percent to 13.2 percent in Grand Junction
during the same period. The fourth-quarter vacancy rate for Colorado
Springs was 8.7 percent, down from 10.4 percent during fourth quarter
2008.

Vacancies in the metro Denver area are measured in a
separate survey. Last month the third-quarter vacancy rate was reported
as 7.7 percent. In general, a vacancy rate of 5 percent is considered
to be the “equilibrium rate.”

As expected, the Fort
Collins/Loveland area saw the biggest increase in average monthly
rents, which increased by more than $40 from the fourth quarter of 2008
to the fourth quarter of 2009. Average rents in the area rose
year-over-year from $809.81 to $854.10. In Greeley, the average monthly
rent increased from $628.77 in the fourth quarter of 2008 to $636.86 in
the same period in 2009.

Also as expected, during the same
period average rents fell in Grand Junction – from $666.22 to $633.46.
However, rents remained flat in Colorado Springs at $711.66, and
actually rose in Pueblo – from $518.26 to $541.44 year-over-year.

The full Vacancy and Rent Survey Report is available online at the Division of Housing website: http://dola.colorado.gov/cdh.

Fort related stories:

Vacancies down in Fort Collins, up in Greeley – 2/20/2009

Apartment vacancies rise everywhere but Fort Collins – 5/21/2009