Apartment Vacancy in Greater Denver Hits 16-Year Peak

The vacancy rate in the Denver-area apartment market has reached a nearly two-decade high.

More than 34,000 apartments across the region were empty at the end of 2025, making for a vacancy rate of 7.6 percent — the highest in 16 years, the Colorado Sun reported, citing officials with the Apartment Association of Metro Denver. The metro Denver area includes the seven counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson.

The issue isn’t that apartments aren’t getting new tenants, but that newly built complexes leased up faster last year than every year but for 2021. Because so many new units were built in the past two years, the excess supply has created a sizable backlog of unfilled apartments. Over the past decade, multifamily developers have built 125,000 units, now accounting for about one-third of the region’s nearly 450,000 existing units.

Rent prices have started to fall as vacancies rise. Overall, the average rent fell 4.8 percent to $1,754 per month, or approximately the same as four years ago. Concessions such as free months of rent, Visa gift cards and raffles made actual rent paid even lower, with an average concession of 9.5 percent of gross rent. Douglas County had the highest average monthly rent at $1,950 and Adams County had the lowest at $1,620. Arapahoe and Denver counties had the highest vacancy rate of 8.2 percent, while Boulder and Broomfield counties were tied at 6.5 percent.

Older properties built in the 1970s and earlier have the highest vacancy rates in Greater Denver, according to the Colorado Sun. Vacancy rates at those aging properties was at 8.4 percent in the fourth quarter. They also had the lowest rates in the metro area, with 1970s-built units fetching an average of $1,423.

With a glut of newly built apartments and a dearth of tenants to fill them, developers have pumped the brakes on new construction, according to the Sun. Investors have simultaneously shied away from financing new multifamily developments.

“They’re really nervous about all those unpredictable elements that are outside those natural market conditions,” Mark T. Williams of the Apartment Association of Metro Denver said. “You’ve got increasing costs, insurance, taxes, labor supplies. It’s just sort of the perfect storm right now… It’s a great opportunity for new renters.”

— Chris Malone Méndez