COLORADO SPRINGS — The Pikes Peak region has seen a sharp increase in the number of new apartments being built this year compared to the same time last year. But will this increase in supply finally help bring prices down? The answer is complicated.
The Pikes Peak Regional Building Department reports between January and April of 2020, it issued permits for 709 new apartment units. For that same period this year, it’s already issued permits for 1,013 new units, with many more on the way.
Overall in 2020, the department issued permits for just over 1,500 new apartment units, meaning if 2021 keeps going the way it has, it will easily outpace 2020.
Being in the real estate business for over two decades, ERA Shields real estate broker Eddie Hurt has been through it all.
“There’s been a lot of ups and downs,” Hurt said. Or so he thought. “But this is I think the most extreme market I’ve experienced in 22 years,” he said.
As News 5 has reported before, the short supply of homes on the market has made it almost impossible to buy one. “It’s really really tough on buyers, really tough,” Hurt said.
But how about renters? “The rental market’s pretty similar in that regard,” he said.
The reason is pretty cut and dry. “It’s that high school economics class, or economics 101 class in college… supply and demand,” he said.
They just can’t build apartments fast enough. but they are trying. “Locally it seems like they’ve built a lot of apartment homes all over the city,” he said.
But pick your real estate price-tracking site of choice, and they’ll all show you home and rental prices are still only going one way in Colorado Springs.
“They’ve kind of, for lack of a better term, gone through the roof,” Hurt said. “Especially in the last year.”
It can’t last like this forever. “I think eventually things will level off,” he said. But if you’re hoping prices will stop rising soon, you’ll have to stay patient. “I think we’re a year, maybe two, from even getting close to that,” Hurt said. “I think as long as people see the front range of Colorado an attractive place to live, the demand is gonna stay there.”
And keep in mind, none of that can happen unless one thing happens. “Bottom line is they’re just gonna have to build more,” he said.
