By Brian Porter | Rocky Mountain Voice
The average residential property rental in Denver is $2,050, a decrease of $117 in a year from a peak in August 2024, according to Zillow.com.
In Colorado Springs the rental market has seen almost no change in a year, while in other cities like Pueblo and Grand Junction rents have increased, Zillow.com says.
The rise of rents, or potentially the decline, is all a product of supply of rentals and demand by renters, some industry experts say, but two Colorado Democrat representatives have written a bill to try and prevent landlord price fixing. They say multiple online companies offer algorithms that allow landlords to collude to set rental price points.
House Bill 25-1004, by Denver County Reps. Steven Woodrow and Javier Mabrey, aims to correct the behavior they say is artificially raising rents, while others say it either doesn’t exist or is a small contributing factor.
“We should all be able to agree price fixing is wrong and ultimately unlawful,” Woodrow said Thursday during presentation of the bill to the House’s Business Affairs and Labor Committee. “Many sectors of the economy have turned to price-setting algorithms. Unfortunately, it has hit the housing market.”
He says it has increased costs to renters by $136 per month, or in excess of $1,600 annually. That does not agree with Zillow.com in Denver, although it undershoots the company’s findings of rents being up $250 in a year in Greeley.
Following robust discussion from industry leaders and antitrust attorneys, the bill advanced to the House Thursday on a party-line, 7-5, vote.
Rep. Rebecca Keltie, R-Colorado Springs, opposed the bill on the grounds it would create a Class 5 felony, which she has argued with the bill sponsors. Rep. Max Brooks, R-Castle Rock, says the market has many factors causing rents to rise.
“I have a hard time getting there that this is the issue,” he said.
The bill would seek to prevent collusion, not artificial intelligence in business, Mabry said.
“This is central to our mission this session of saving Coloradans money,” he said, stealing a central theme from House Republicans. “I don’t think we could scream any louder that this is the right thing to do. There are lawsuits ongoing, but these lawsuits could take years.”
Antitrust attorneys argued it is in the landlord’s interest to fill all available units, rather than artificially inflating rents and holding a number of units open to drive up pricing.
Price-fixing “in a smoke-filled room” or through “an Internet algorithm” is still-price fixing, Mabry argues.
Republicans also opposing the bill were Reps. Ryan Armagost, Chris Richardson and Larry Don Suckla.