Rent prices in Colorado Springs (Center, Colorado City: to rent, houses, neighborhood)

[rochester_veteran]

My friends who live in Cos found a nice 1 bedroom apartment for me, that has a balcony and is a 4 mile drive south of the Garden of the Gods, for $895 a month. I'm moving in at the end of August 2019!

[Vision67]

https://gazette.com/premium/colorado...9c9c5998d.html

"The cost of renting a Colorado Springs-area apartment climbed to another record high in the third quarter.

Renters paid an average $1,231.24 a month in the July-August-September period of this year, surpassing the record of $1,215.67 set during the second quarter, according to a report released on behalf of the Colorado Division of Housing and Apartment Association of Southern Colorado.

Rents have reached record highs during each quarter of 2019; the third-quarter rent also is up nearly $75 a month from the same period last year, the report shows.

Area rents have risen steadily over the last five to six years — and set several quarterly records along the way — partly because the local economy has rebounded from the Great Recession, employment has increased and the demand for apartments has soared, industry experts have said.

Millennials who don’t want to buy a house or are saddled with student debt and can’t afford one, along with empty-nesters who prefer maintenance-free living, are among the groups who are driving the demand for multifamily living, the experts have said.

But it’s not just the increased demand that’s driven up rents.

Most Colorado Springs-area apartment projects built in recent years have been upscale, amenity-filled communities that command top dollar for rents, said Laura Nelson, the Apartment Association’s executive director.

“The only supply we’re adding is high end,” she said. “So when you add high-end units, then it pulls your average up. That doesn’t necessarily mean than everything is going up that high. But when that’s all that you’re adding in, it throws off the average.”

Though several apartment projects have been built in recent years, the overall supply might not be keeping up with demand.

In the third quarter, only about 2,600 of the area’s supply of 51,142 apartments were available for rent — a 5 percent vacancy rate that was the lowest in three years, the Housing Division and Apartment Association report shows.

Nearly 750 units have been added to the area’s supply in the first three quarters of the year, which is about the same number as during the same period in 2018, according to the report. Even so, an additional 1,178 apartments have been occupied since the start of the year.

“We’re definitely going to need more,” Nelson said of the apartment supply.

Adding affordable apartments, however, isn’t easy, she said.

The cost to plan, design and build affordable units is the same as developing higher-end projects, Nelson said. As a result, developers need financial incentives — grants, tax credits or cheaper land — to help them build lower-cost housing.

“They tell me it costs the same to build high-end as it does affordable,” Nelson said. “So there’s a rub there. Where do you make the numbers match if there’s not free land or property taxes waived or something? … The tax credit programs are great, but they’re very highly competitive. There’s a limited amount of money handed out for that.

“I do think the city is going to get a task force together and work on some of this,” she said. “I think anything they can do to ‘incentivize’ and cut costs is for the better. Unfortunately right now, the only projects that make sense are high-end projects.”

[rochester_veteran]

My rent is well below the average $1,231.24 a month mentioned in the article and it's a nice place with a mountain view. My friends that found my place told me that there were a lot of dumps in the $800-$900 range that I was looking for as well. I feel fortunate that they found such a nice place, pretty much all I was looking for and within my rental budget!

[BornintheSprings]

Originally Posted by rochester_veteran

My rent is well below the average $1,231.24 a month mentioned in the article and it's a nice place with a mountain view. My friends that found my place told me that there were a lot of dumps in the $800-$900 range that I was looking for as well. I feel fortunate that they found such a nice place, pretty much all I was looking for and within my rental budget!

There are certainly deals to be had all throughout the city you just have to be patient and persistent.

[Colorado Rambler]

I check out the available rentals on padmapper fairly often and things only seem to be going from bad to worse. Rentals that cost less than a $1,000.00 per month are almost always in parts of town that I would never dream of living in. And of course, pets never seem to be allowed - even in the worst of neighborhoods. Looks like my exile here on the Western Slope will continue indefinitely.

[BornintheSprings]

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

I check out the available rentals on padmapper fairly often and things only seem to be going from bad to worse. Rentals that cost less than a $1,000.00 per month are almost always in parts of town that I would never dream of living in. And of course, pets never seem to be allowed - even in the worst of neighborhoods. Looks like my exile here on the Western Slope will continue indefinitely.

True but any part of town you move to would be improved exponentially.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by BornintheSprings

True but any part of town you move to would be improved exponentially.

Hah! Thanks for the compliment! Maybe you could spread the word to any landlords with properties in Ivywild/Skyway, Old Colorado City and the upper West Side as well as Manitou?

[Vision67]

https://krdo.com/news/top-stories/20...became-scarce/

"Real Cost of Living: How affordable housing in Colorado Springs became scarce


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Is Colorado home, or just a stop along the way? The answer may be different for each of us, but living in the Centennial State doesn't come cheap.

Many who are on the hunt for an affordable place know there are a lot of challenges in finding one, especially with record-high rent prices, and salaries not keeping up.

A local economist says the average renter in Colorado Springs makes about $16 an hour. At that wage, rents should only be about $800 dollars a month, but instead they're averaging $1,200. About half of renters in Colorado Springs pay 30% or more of their income on rent.

"It was 1,200 a month for a one-bedroom apartment," said 26-year-old Melissa Leider, a new homeowner and former renter.

That steep price has now become the norm here in Colorado Springs, increasing by an average of $400 over the past four years, according to data collected by the Southern Colorado Apartments Association.

For Leider, it meant having to make sacrifices.

"I worked three jobs. I was teaching, driving Lyft and Uber, and [working at] a sandwich shop. So between the three of those I could make it work with the rent," Leider said.

The Executive Director of the Southern Colorado Apartments Association, Laura Nelson, says the reason for the high rent is simple: supply and demand.

"We need much more supply and the housing crisis did hold off that building for a very long time," she said.

Over the past five years, we've seen a growing population and strong economy. Many attribute it to the Springs' recent reputation as one of the most desirable places to live in the U.S.

"We have roughly 8,500 units proposed, only about 2,500 of those are actively being built right now," Nelson said.

Rent on those properties is expected to be on par with the average, but according to Tatiana Bailey, an economy professor at UCCS, income isn't keeping up.

"We are still about 14% lower in average pay than the U.S. and about 16% than the state of Colorado. That's a big difference," Bailey said.

It also doesn't help that millennials, the biggest generation living in apartments, are having to pay some of the highest college tuition on record.

"It's a huge issue. The average student loan out there is about 30,000 now and if you look at the most recent information for recent graduates about 75% of college graduates have some type of student loan," Bailey said.

While the average renter has many costs adding up, so do builders, adding to the reason why rent prices continue to soar.

"I've been told it's $170,000 a unit, bare-bones, to build an apartment. So you can imagine, at 170,000, you can't afford to rent that at $400 a month," Nelson said.

"Lack of supply of vacant developed land in addition to high labor and material costs has made buying a home or building out an apartment incredibly expensive," Bailey said.

That same problem is also affecting home builders. The median price of a home in Colorado Springs is $339,000.

"Things are a lot more expensive that's for sure. When we were coming out of the downturn in 2009, we were selling homes in the low 200,000s. Today, those same homes are in the mid $300,000."

Todd Anderson has been building houses in Colorado Springs since 2004. He says the rising costs of homes are because of the price of land and regulatory costs.

"There has been a number of fees and entitlement costs added to the cost of that lot. The lot that we could buy for 30,40,50-thousand around 2010 is now 70,80,90-thousand dollars and it's the same size lot in generally the same location," Anderson said.

A study by the housing and building association broke down the estimated costs of building a new house in Colorado Springs. The cost of developing a lot is about $50,000, while home construction is about $34,000. That means besides labor and materials, builders are spending $84,000 in regulation costs.

With trends showing prices will keep rising, these same homeowners are worried about what it may mean for their future.

"Like this house is good for us now but in five or six years we may need a bigger house and it's discouraging to think about that," said Joshua Andrew, a first-time homebuyer.

For now, many new builds are three-bedroom townhomes, aimed at getting more affordable homes for families. Builders are hoping they can be the "new" starter homes, priced at around $200,000.

With the healthy overall economy in Colorado Springs, economists say our real estate market will remain pretty steady."

[rochester_veteran]

Vision67, thanks for keeping us up on the latest on the Cos rental market!

My son and his wife were renting in Castle Rock and ended up buying a home in Elbert. It's a long drive (1 hour) each way for my son to get to work and back, but the house they bought in Elbert was within their budget and Castle Rock was out of the question because of the housing prices there. My son and I talked about the population growth in the Front Range of Colorado and he made the observation that both Falcon and Elizabeth are growing due to the spread of the housing markets from Cos, most effecting Falcon, and Denver, most effecting Elizabeth and perhaps this could make Elbert a place to be for an area for growth. It's a 39 mile drive from Elbert to Cos and a 38 mile drive from Elbert to Lone Tree at the south end of the DTC.

[LHS79]

Originally Posted by rochester_veteran

Vision67, thanks for keeping us up on the latest on the Cos rental market!

My son and his wife were renting in Castle Rock and ended up buying a home in Elbert. It's a long drive (1 hour) each way for my son to get to work and back, but the house they bought in Elbert was within their budget and Castle Rock was out of the question because of the housing prices there. My son and I talked about the population growth in the Front Range of Colorado and he made the observation that both Falcon and Elizabeth are growing due to the spread of the housing markets from Cos, most effecting Falcon, and Denver, most effecting Elizabeth and perhaps this could make Elbert a place to be for an area for growth. It's a 39 mile drive from Elbert to Cos and a 38 mile drive from Elbert to Lone Tree at the south end of the DTC.

Like most places in Colorado growth is becoming a huge concern and Elizabeth is no different.

People who live on large lots do not want the cookie-cutter developments in that area with houses 10 feet apart- hopefully they can get this done:

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/10/2...ction-housing/