Apartment rents are up in Fort Collins to over $1,000 per month and vacancy rates have dropped to less than 3 percent. Why? Well, neither this story in the Northern Colorado Business Report nor this one in the Coloradoan mention it, but a big reason is the ‘3-unrelated’ ordinance passed by the Fort Collins City Council about 5 years ago. The ordinance doesn’t allow more than 3 people who are unrelated to live in the same rental property. The result has been to dramatically skew the rental market as young renters, mostly college students, have had to find other living arrangements. More people are now chasing available units. It’s a classic example of government interference in the market with adverse consequences that aren’t tracked back to the true cause.
The real estate market is responding by building more units. In the short-term, however, it’s a strong market for landlords and a challenging one for renters.