By Margaret Jackson / NewsBreak Denver
(Denver, Colo.) Gen Zers boost Denver’s apartment market as the demographic emerges from living with their parents during the pandemic to striking out independently.
Gen Z, also known as zoomers, refers to the generation born between 1997 and 2012.
Zoomers account for almost a third of Denver’s renters, significantly more than in 2020 when the share of Gen Z renters reached 22%, according to a report from RentCafe, a national apartment search website and part of Yardi.
Denver — the No. 1 Gen Z city in Colorado — recorded a 29% spike in the share of applications submitted by zoomers, while millennial renters are slowly losing the majority. Rental requests submitted by millennials declined, going from 58% in 2020 to 52% in 2021.
“Big cities offer many amenities that are not available in smaller cities or rural areas, from dining and entertainment options to public transit to services like gyms and spas, said Nicholas Dempsey, associate professor of sociology at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla. “And big cities offer opportunities for social networking — whether Gen Zers are looking for professional colleagues to bounce ideas off of or romantic partners, they’re more likely to find someone to connect within a big, dense city.”
Boulder is home to the second-largest share of Gen Zs nationwide, with 66% of renters under 25. Last year, the college town was crowned the top Gen Z hub, a title that now belongs to Davis, Calif.
Meanwhile, as home prices soar, homeownership slips further out of reach for this generation.
Denver County has the highest median home price in the metro area at $616,875 — well above the affordability amount for zoomers and baby boomers, whose purchasing power ranges from $282,890 to $323,075, according to Point2, an international real estate search portal and division of Yardi Systems Inc.
Millennials and Gen Xers come closer to affording the median with $510,268 and $323,075, respectively.
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