Market Stats:
Home appreciation from 2013 to 2014: 13.5% – Zillow
Population growth: 5.6%
No. 9: Best Place to Relocate to in America – Sperling’s Best Places
No. 4: Best Places for Business and Careers – Forbes
No. 6: Fastest Growing City in America – CNNMoney
DENVER, COLO.
The city of Denver is home to a revitalization success story that’s been 20 years in the making and that’s why it’s part of BUILDER’s list of 2015’s hottest housing markets. Noticing an influx of young people over the past decade, Denver officials aimed to shape the city into exactly what millennials want: a walkable urban core. The city invested millions in revamping the Lower Downtown area, including an expansion of public transportation across the metro area, offering more park-and-ride stations reaching into suburbs.
The move toward urbanization has attracted transplants from across the country over the past several years, fueling a 5.6% population growth. With a revitalized downtown and a younger population, startups and entrepreneurs have followed suit and targeted the city, providing a job growth of 2.7% in 2014. Even more, the unemployment rate has remained low at 4%.
Denver has been ranked as one of the country’s healthiest cities, attracting a demographic that wants the benefits of a strong economy and healthy living. Many local home builders offer amenities that focus on community and well-being, with walkability as a major staple.
Renting also is becoming increasingly prohibitive in the Mile High City. Residents spend an average of 19.7% of their income on a home, compared with 32.9% on rent, according to Zillow.
Even though buying a home is more affordable than renting, some economists speculate that home prices are already bloated and anticipate a slowdown, but home values are still recognizing an appreciation of 13.5%, says Skylar Olsen, a senior economist at Zillow.
“Right now [home values] are on this upward ramp as far as really increasing over time,” says Olsen. “We would expect them to start dropping off in a balancing way as construction responds, market prices respond, appreciation eases and slows down.”
However, the city’s economy hasn’t let up. “Denver has so much job growth, so much population growth that demand has kept pace at a fairly incredible rate,” says Olsen.
While housing prices might continue increasing for the next
few years, albeit at a much slower rate, one thing is clear: Denver, like many
other fast-growing population centers, is in need of more entry-level product
to satisfy the millennials flooding this rejuvenated city. — Kayla Devon
