DENVER (KDVR) — A new visualization from ApartmentList makes it easier to see that Denver was far from alone in the skyrocketing rents that hit the market after the COVID pandemic set in.
Most cities in the country saw the same broad trend – rents fell immediately after the COVID pandemic forced people away from city cores, then rose sharply in 2021 and 2022. They have been cooling off in most cities beginning in late 2022, but a handful of cities have started seeing rents rise again.
The visualization measures month-to-month rental price growth from January 2018 through December 2022.
In the last two months of 2022, most cities in the nation’s 100 largest cities saw rents decrease. Only a handful have seen rents rise at the end of last year. These cities include Lincoln, Nebraska; Omaha, Nebraska; Paradise, Nevada; and Oklahoma City.
Denver’s rent had already been climbing in the two years before the COVID pandemic began. Between January 2018 and March 2020, rental prices grew by a total of 7.7%. Since then, the rate doubled.
Between March 2020 and December 2022, rent rose 12.4% in Denver. For the last four months, it has been declining.