Rent growth in Metro Denver falls to 4-year low in 4th quarter of 2016

According to the latest data from the Apartment Association of Metro Denver, the average rent in Metro Denver during the fourth quarter of 2016 was $1,347, which was down from the third quarter average rent of $1,368.

The fourth quarter's average rent was up from the fourth quarter of 2015 with the average rent rising 4.2 percent from $1,292.

With a year-over-year increase of 4.2 percent, however, average rent came in at the smallest year-over-year increase since the first quarter of 2013, when the average rent grew 4.1 percent:

Rent growth has been falling for the past six quarters after reaching a record high of 13.2 percent during the second quarter of 2015.

The average rent has also fallen, quarter over quarter, for the past two quarters. After hitting $1,371 in the second quarter of this year, the average rent fell to $1,368 during the third quarter and then to $1,347 during the fourth quarter:

If we adjust for inflation, we see a similar trend, although we can note that in real terms, the average rent fell between 2001 and about 2011:

Flattening rents are likely a result of substantial increases in new housing construction that took place in metro Denver since 2012. In October 2016, for example, new housing permits reached the highest level recorded since 2001. 

Not surprisingly, we also find that vacancy rates have increased as well. During the fourth quarter, the metro Denver' vacancy rate rose to 6.2 percent, which was up from the 3rd quarter rate of 5.1 percent. 2016's fourth quarter rate was down, however, from the vacancy one year earlier. The vacancy rate had surged to 6.8 percent during the fourth quarter of 2015, but fell again during the first quarter of 2016. Nevertheless, 2016's fourth-quarter rate of 6.1 percent is the second-highest vacancy rate recorded since 2010. 

All of this points toward some stabilization in the market, although there is still little to indicate that we're entering a bearish market in multifamily housing, barring a sizable economic shock to employment or incomes.

Colorado Springs average rent grows by all-time high of 10.2 percent

During the second quarter of 2016, rent growt hin Colorado springs hit an all-time high of 10.2 percent, bringing the average rent in the metro area to 991 dollars, which is also an all-time high. That's up from the first quarter  of this year when the average rent was 959. The average rent during the second quarter of last year was 899 dollars.

According to data released by the Colorado Division of Housing, the average rent in Colorado Springs continues to grow at a historically high rates:

The last time the average rent grew at a similar rate was during the dot-com boom at the very end of the 1990s. If we look at the average rent over, time, we find that the general trend has, not surprisingly been upward, but has increased more rapidly over the past five years than was the case during the previous decade:

Looking just at nominal rent levels, however, can be misleading, and if we adjust for inflation using the nationwide CPI, we find that rents actually went down in real terms from 2003 to 2009. While there was some growth from 2009 to 2013, we see that even in inflation-adjusted terms that rent growth has picked up since 2014. Real rents only surpassed the 2001 high in 2014 following a long period of flat rents. Now, however, inflation-adjusted rents have surpassed the old 2001 peak, and have set several new all-time highs in recent quarters:

As one might expect, this year's robust rent growth reflects low vacancy rates. While not setting any records, the vacancy rates for Colorado Springs over the past year have been generally rather low, with the vacancy rate even dipping below five percent twice over the past two years. (A vacancy rate below five percent is generally regarded as "low".) In any case, recent vacancy rates are among the lowest we've seen since the dot-com boom days, and certainly among the lowest we've seen over the past decade.

Finally, we should note that vacancy rates and rents can be significantly affected by seasonal issues, with the fourth quarter often showing the softest markets each year, with the third quarter often showing the strongest markets. 

So, it can be helpful to compare vacancy rates to the same quarters in previous years. In the final graph, we see the second quarter of this year compared to previous years. 2016's second quarter vacancy rate was higher than the previous year, but nevertheless remains near a ten-year low. 

With some of the highest foreclosure rates among metro counties in Colorado, and with a fairly sedate job market compared to Denver and northern Colorado, Colorado Springs has been more slow to experience strong price growth in housing. However, over the past two years, it has become clear that Colorado Springs is now seeing unusually high growth in rents and housing demand. Future rents will depend partially on new housing construction, and we'll look at that in a future post.

Inflation-adjusted rents in Metro Denver still near all-time highs

The 4th Q 2015 vacancy and rent survey showed that vacancy rose to a five-year high while rents were flat from the 3rd Q of 2015 to the 4th Q. Year-over-year, though rent growth was still substantial.

The rent data released by the Apartment Association's survey, however, are just nominal rents, and are not adjusted for inflation. So, I like to take a look at rents in terms of 2015 dollars only, so we can compare more accurately with rents as they were in previous business cycles.

We know that nominal rents are currently near the highest levels ever. But where are they once adjusted for inflation?

Well, it turns out that even when adjusted for inflation, the average rent in metro Denver is still near all-time highs.

In this case, the fourth quarter average rent for metro Denver was $1,292, which is equal to the third quarter and up from the average rent during the fourth quarter of 2014 which was $1174.

However, it wasn't that long ago that the average rent was still below where it had been during the dot-com boom days in real terms. Specifically,  the average rent hit 1,084 during the fourth quarter of 2000. That level was not passed again until the first quarter of 2014. During most of the period from 2001 to 2001, the average rent was actually falling in real terms:

So, when adjusted for inflation, we do find that rents really do go down, as they did during the housing boom and many households were leaving rental housing behind for purchase homes. The foreclosure crisis and lackluster income growth since 2009 (among other things), however, has made rentals relatively more attractive in recent years, and rent growth has now surpassed the dot-com days. 

As  a final note, let's look at  the unemployment rate versus the vacancy rate. Historically, the two have often trended together, and this was especially true before 2008:

Since 2008, though, the vacancy and rent has become less sensitive to employment trends, perhaps due to a relative decline in the attractiveness of purchase housing, and the fact that household formation has tended to outpace multifamily construction in recent years. With the fourth quarter's sizable increase in vacancies, it is unclear if this signals a trend, although vacancy rate may be responding the the continued decline of job creation in metro Denver.

All data comes from the Apartment Association of Metro Denver's apartment vacancy and rental survey, and from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Apartment Vacancy Rate Rises to Five Percent in Metro Denver

According to the Multifamily Vacancy survey from the AAMD, the vacancy rate for the third quarter in metro Denver was 5 percent. That's up from 3.9 percent during the third quarter of 2014. And it's also up from 4.5 percent during the second quarter of this year.

It's unlikely that this is a seasonal softening, as the third quarter tends to be one of the tightest quarters of the year in terms of rental housing. We can expect further softening during the fourth and first quarters coming up.

Five percent is what the report's original author, Gordon Von Stroh, used to call "the equilibirum rate," since it's the rate at which you wouldn't say that the market is either tight or soft. This is a change from most quarters in the last two years, though. One would certainly say that a vacancy rate of 3.5 percent is indeed a tight market, as was clearly the case last year. There does appear to be real softening in the market right now, though:

Note that the third quarter's rate of 5 percent was the highest rate recorded in six quarters. 

I like to compare the vacancy rate to the unemployment rate as well, since there has historically been a connection between the two. Naturally, a hot job market tends to lead to a tight rental market since more people can afford to go out and found a new rental household without the need for roommates. Thus, more households are created and more units demanded. We can see the two curves move together in most cases. 

 Thanks to sustained population increases in the metro Denver area over the past decade, the rental market tightened after 2010 even in the face of a very lackluster job market. As the unemployment rate declined, the vacancy rate moved quickly toward some of the lowest rates ever recorded.

The metro Denver vacancy rate rarely falls below 4 percent. Whether or not the current tight market can be sustained remains to be seen, however. As we'll see in other data, median household income growth in Denver has not been robust in recent years, and this will tend to put a damper on multifamily demand as people take on roommates or share quarters with other families. 

Metro Denver's Inflation-Adjusted Rents Hit An All-time high This Year

New third-quarter average rent data came out for metro Denver last month. The average rent hit a new all-time high during the third quarter of 2015. During the third quarter, the average rent in metro Denver, according to the Apartment Association of Metro Denver's vacancy survey, was $1,291. That's up from the third-quarter 2014 average rent of $1,145:

Year-over-year, the third quarter saw one of the largest growth rates ever recorded. During the third Q of 2015, the YOY change was 12.7 percent. That's down slightly from the second quarter's all-time highest growth rate of 13.2 percent:

Although this graph only goes back to 1988, we'd still find that recent YOY growth is the highest ever, even if we go back to the earliest data recorded by this survey (which was in 1982). We can safely say that we're now experiencing the highest levels of rent growth seen in thirty years. 

But what if we adjust for inflation? Is the rent really at an all time high? The answer is yes.  In this graph, I've adjusted the average rent data so that everything is in constant 2015 dollars: 

When we adjust for inflation, we find that real rents were fairly high even by today's standard during 2000 and 2001. Back in the 4th quarter of 2000, real rents had peaked at $1,085. They would not reach that level again until the 4th Q of 2013. Since then, rents have been regularly reaching new all-time highs. 

Also note that rents were going down in real terms between 2001 and 2009. Those were the days when, in real terms, your rent actually went down when you renewed your lease. For now, renters are facing some of the biggest rent growth ever, both in nominal terms and in real terms. 

This data is for multifamily rentals only. "Multifamily" means structures with more than four units. 

Metro Denver: Average Apartment Rent Growth Sets New Record During Second Quarter

Third quarter multifamily vacancy and rent data will be coming out in a about a month, but let's have a closer look at the second quarter's numbers. If current trends are any indication, the third quarter — which tends to be the strongest quarter of the year for multifamily — will be another period of low vacancies and high rent growth.

The first graph shows the overall apartment vacancy rate in metro Denver through the second quarter of this year. The rate was 4.5 percent for the second quarter. that's down from the first quarter rate of 4.9 percent, and down from 4.7 percent during the second quarter of 2014. So, vacancies are low, given that 4 percent is pretty much as low as the vacancy rate ever goes in the metro area. From a tenant perspective, it's about as easy to find an apartment now as it was during the final days of the dot-com boom:

And when vacancy rates get low, we generally expect rent growth. But this time around, we're seeing some of the largest rent growth we've ever seen since the survey was first initiated in the early 1980s. The average rent in metro Denver during the second quarter was $1,265, which is the highest rent ever recorded in nominal terms. It's also the highest rent ever recorded in real terms, but I'll have to adjust the rents for inflation in a future post. The current acceleration in rents outpaces the 1990s:  

In fact, the past three quarters, when measured in year-over-year comparisons, show by far the largest YOY growth in rents ever recorded.  The second quarter's average rent of $1,265 was up an enormous  13.2 percent from the second quarter of 2014 when the average rent was $1,117. The YOY increase was over 12 percent for both the fourth quarter of 2014 and the first quarter of 2015:

Thanks to continued in-migration and a relatively small amount of new single-family construction, multifamily housing remains the most feasible option for many households. Those seeking affordability will move outward from the urban center to more affordable C-class units in further out neighborhoods. Some households will double up or take on roommates. 

The population growth data, though, won't come in for a year after the fact, so it's hard to know to what extent a lack of affordability is impacting in-migration at this time.

Compared to to other markets, the Denver market is experiencing some of the highest rent growth rates in the nation. But, of course, rent level remain well below those in San Francisco. 

Note: The report also tracks median rent, although, at this time, there is no significant difference in the trend between median rents and average rents. the median rent during the second quarter of 2015 was $1,225, which was up 14.7 percent from the 2nd Q 2014 median rent of $1,067. The median rent during the first quarter of 2015 was $1,203.

Chart of the Day: Rent growth hits record highs in Metro Denver

The Metro Denver Apartment Association released first quarter 2015 vacancy and rent data late last  month, and we find that year-over-year rent growth hits exceptionally high levels for the second quarter in a row. The average rent during the 1st Q 2015 was $1,203, compared to $1,073 one year earlier. During the 4th Q of 2014, the avg rent was $1,168

The first graph shows the average rent for all quarters recorded since the survey was initiated in teh early 1980s by Gordon Von Stroh. Obviously, rent growth since 2012 has been significant. If we just eyeball the graph, we can see that the rate of growth in recent years has outpaced most other periods. Even during the late 1990s during the tech boom, rent growth was not as strong as it is now. These numbers are not adjusted for inflation, and during the period from 2003 to 2009, rent barely exceeded the CPI growth rate during many periods. But, rent growth is now well in excess of CPI growth.

If we want to really quantify just how strong rent growth has been, we can look at the year-over-year change for each quarter. The next graph shows this, and we see that for the 4th Q of 2014 and the 1st Q of 2015, rent growth is the highest is has been in 30 years. During the 4th Q 2014, the YOY change was 12.19 percent, which is now the highest YOY increase ever recorded. During the 1st Q 2015, the growth rate came down slightly to 12.11 percent. But, it's a little silly to talk about these estimates out to the hundredths place, so to be more realistic, we can just say that for the past two quarters, rent growth has been tied at a record high of 12.1 percent.

And why so much rent growth? Demand is high. The vacancy rate for metro Denver during the 1st Q 2015 was 4.9 percent. That's up from the fourth quarter (which tends to be a high-vacancy quarter) but year over year, the 1st Q's vacancy rate was below 2014's 1st Q rate of 5.1 percent. For the past four quarters, the vacancy rate has been below five percent, which is quite low for this market. Looking at the past thirty years, we see that vacancy rates are near very low levels, although not where it was during the very tight late 1990s.

But if the vacancy rate is not at record low levels, why is rent growth at record high levels? Part of it is due to the fact that most of the new product is luxury or fairly high end product. (This is average rent and not median rent, so the number are skewed up slightly by very expensive new product. Median rents, however, show similar trends.) Also, with so few homes for sale due to fairly lackluster rates of new home construction and low inventory, there are few options renters have outside renting. Thus, rents continue to move upward rapidly.