Denver, CO Multifamily Market Report Q3 2026
Rents Slip 2.3%, Yet 1,819 Units Absorbed in a Strong Q3
Demand
Denver absorbed 1,819 units in Q3 2026, against 575 in the same quarter last year. Vacancy is 5.9%, 17 bps tighter than Q3 2025. Downtown/Highlands is the tightest submarket at 5.1% vacancy; North Suburbs posted the smallest rent decline at -1.1%. Trailing-12-month absorption of 8,188 units is down from 12,202 a year earlier.
Supply
Denver recorded 2,292 units of completions in Q3 and 8,024 over the trailing twelve months (-38% versus the prior TTM period). Units under construction equal 4.1% of inventory, concentrated in Highlands Ranch/Littleton at 9.7% of its stock. Annual completions peaked at 18,693 units in 2024. The 15,052-unit pipeline equals about seven and a half quarters of absorption at the trailing pace.
Investment Market
Denver recorded $4.8B in sales over the trailing twelve months, +21% against the prior TTM period; Q3 accounted for $2.98B. The high-water mark in this series is $11.6B in 2021. Q3 volume is 4.3 times the prior four-quarter average and likely reflects entity-level activity from the AvalonBay and Equity Residential merger. Read volume as directional. CoStar records $439M for Q3; on that count trailing volume would be $2.3B.
Denver cap rates average 5.38%, up for 19 straight quarters. Pricing sits at $260k per unit, lower for 4 consecutive years.
Volume
- $4.8B TTM volume (+21% YoY)
- Q3 2026: $2.98B
- Series peak $11.6B (2021)
Pricing
- Cap rate 5.38%
- Price per unit $260k
- Caps expanding 19 quarters running
