Denver ranks high for rents

Denver Business Journal
Date: Friday, June 24, 2011, 8:58am MDT - Last Modified: Friday, June 24, 2011, 11:40am MDT

Metro Denver had the 55th-highest typical apartment rents in 2009 out of 385 U.S. markets, according to a new analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. Among the 65 largest metro areas, Denver had the 23rd highest rents that year.

The analysis is by G. Scott Thomas in his "On Numbers" blog for The Business Journal, the national online business-news affiliate of the Denver Business Journal.

Median contract rent in 2009 was $778 a month in 2009 in the Denver-Aurora metro area, Thomas reports.

Typical rents in Boulder were higher that year: $933, 22nd highest out of the 385 markets in Thomas' report.

San Jose, Calif., was America’s most expensive market for renters in 2009. The median monthly cost for an apartment there was $1,340. Eighteen U.S. markets had median apartment rents over $1,000.

Thomas reports that rents tend to be highest in California, Hawaii and heavily populated Eastern states such as Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.

The biggest bargains, on the other hand, are in smaller Southern and Midwestern markets; Lumberton, N.C., had the lowest median rent as of 2009, $352.