John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... The vacancy rate for subsidized, deed-restricted apartment units in Colorado fell slightly to 6.7 percent in the fourth quarter, shows a report released today. By comparison, the vacancy rate for non-subsidized units stood at 7.9 percent.
A year earlier, the vacancy rate stood at 6.9 percent, according to the statewide report by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs’s Division of Housing. The vacancy for subsidized units was unchanged from the third quarter.
The overall vacancy rates measure vacancies among all subsidized units at all income levels. However, among units available to residents earning 30 percent of area median income or less, the vacancy rate was 2.5 percent, with no area reporting a vacancy rate above 4.2 percent.
Loveland bucks trend
As expected, deed-restricted units reported overall lower vacancies than market-rate units in almost all metropolitan areas. The loan exception was Loveland, where deed-restricted vacancies were 8.4 percent, and market-rate vacancies were 6.6 percent.
The largest gaps between market-rate vacancies and deed-restricted vacancies were found in Grand Junction and Pueblo. In Grand Junction, deed-restricted vacancies were 4.1 percent and market-rate vacancies were 13.2 percent, and in Pueblo, deed-restricted vacancies were 4.7 percent, and market-rate vacancies were 12.2 percent.
The deed-restricted vacancy and rent survey and the market-rate vacancy and rent survey are available at this link. The Colorado Division of Housing monitors vacancies in subsidized and rent-restricted units on a quarterly basis.
Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.
