Rents in Durango soared in 2013 amid a paucity of available rental properties.
The average rent jumped 15 percent to $989 a month, up from $863 in 2012. The vacancy rate fell to 1.5 percent, down by more than half from the year before.
The data from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs was presented at the 2014 Southwest Business Forum by Fort Lewis College professor Robert J. Sonora.
The tight rental market is continuing into 2014, with apartment developments, property managers and landlords saying they have few vacancies and that any unoccupied properties are being snapped up quickly.
At Hillcrest Apartments, only three of 112 units are available, a leasing agent said.
AREM Property Management Inc. has only three properties available out of more than 200 it manages – a vacancy rate of less than 2 percent.
“Things rent like crazy,” said Makayla Best, an AREM rental agent.
Individual landlords are finding the same conditions. Brian and Nancy Vanmols own two rental units, both two-bedroom, two-bathroom condominiums on Florida Road. Nancy Vanmols said she has little trouble renting them.
“They don’t last a month,” she said. “It’s all I can do to get in and get them completely clean before they’re rented.”
Employers also are experiencing difficulty with new hires being able to find housing.
The rental market is so tight in part because homes in Durango are relatively expensive, forcing some would-be homebuyers into rentals. Durango homes sold for a median price of $370,000 in 2013, according to the Durango Area Association of Realtors.
Meanwhile, Fort Lewis College enrollment now exceeds 4,000 students. The college houses 1,381 students on campus. Last fall, 95 percent of FLC beds were occupied, a figure that since has fallen to 88 percent, said Laura Latimer, the college’s assistant director of residence life.
Builders are beginning to catch on to the need for more apartment housing in Durango. The city issued seven permits for multifamily projects in 2013, as many as in the previous four years combined.
Don Ricedorff, a real estate agent at The Wells Group in Durango, said the lack of multifamily projects being built during the downturn contributed to the current crunch.
“Durango is still one of those locations that people want to come to and population is increasing in Durango, and yet we haven’t created new supply in the rental market,” he said.
cslothower@durangoherald.com
