By Kyle Harris | Denverite
When Cassie Welch Rubin moved to Denver in 2022, she paid $1,400 a month for a bug-infested, rundown studio apartment in University Hills, a neighborhood she hated. To get to her job, she took a two-hour bus ride each way.
This year, Rubin left her University Hills studio for a one-bedroom in Capitol Hill. She’s still paying $1,400 – but for a larger place in a central Denver neighborhood.
“I’m really happy with the location,” she said.
Trees line the blocks. She’s close to museums, the botanic gardens and the zoo. She wakes up long before dawn for her 3 a.m. shift as a produce manager at King Soopers. But now she’s a short walk — not a two hour-long bus ride — away from her job.
Like many other renters in Denver, Rubin has found a bit of relief lately. Denver still isn’t affordable, but she’s enjoying a better life for the same price. And it all goes back to a shift in the city’s housing market.
Metrowide rents are falling for the first time in years. A record number of new apartments are hitting the market, and population growth has slowed from a pandemic low. Many renters are still struggling to afford their leases. But many are hunting for better deals — and some are succeeding.
“Now would be the time to take a shot,” RiNo developer Andrew Feinstein said. “I would say that we’re in a market where the landlords need the tenants more than the tenants need the landlords.”