Inside a new two-bedroom affordable apartment at the Reserves At Green Valley Ranch. Oct. 27, 2022.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
There’s a myth that in the West you can go big, really sprawl out.
But when it comes to how much square footage your money gets when you rent Denver apartments, that’s not true.
For $1,500 a month, on average, you get just 629 square feet of space, according to a new report from the online housing marketplace RentCafe.
It’s way better than in Manhattan, where $1,500 gets you a mere 228 square feet. But it’s the worst deal in the Mountain West cities that RentCafe looked at.
And Denver apartments offer 100 square feet less than the national average of 729 square feet per $1,500.
There are limitations to the report.
It’s based on data from Yardi Matrix, a real-estate intelligence site. It focuses on the 200 largest cities in the country, with populations greater than 225,000 residents. It only takes into account people renting in multi-family residences with 50 or more units.
The good, the bad, the big and the small.
“Renters looking for a spacious apartment on a budget in a big city should immediately head to the South,” noted the report. “That’s because more than half of the top 20 large cities offering the most apartment space for a monthly rent of $1,500 are in the Southeast and Southwest. The remaining are all in the Midwest — an area renowned for its balanced mix of affordability, jobs and spacious living.”
Spend $1,500 in Witchita, Kansas, and you’ll get a whopping 1,359 square feet. In Toledo, you’ll get $1,345. And in Memphis, you’ll get $1,256.
Most of the worst deals, beyond Manhattan, are still in the New York City area.
In Brooklyn, you’ll get 300 square feet. In Queens, you’ll get 370 square feet. Jersey City is worse than that, despite the commute. You’ll get 340 square feet.
San Francisco is also a bad deal. There, your $1,500 will pay for 334 square feet a month.
“Major coastal job hubs are places where renters on a fixed budget need to sacrifice square footage to benefit from the countless opportunities these areas offer,” explained the report.
But even smaller cities in California offer less room for your buck.
“This year, California cities stood out on both of our lists of big and small cities where a monthly rent budget of $1,500 doesn’t go far,” according to the report. “To that point, Silicon Valley’s Sunnyvale, CA, was the nation’s top small city where this budget gets renters the least space — 406 square feet, to be exact.”
How much apartment can you get in other Mountain West Cities?
In Aurora, your $1,500 will get you 714 square feet, just under the national average.
Lakewood isn’t much better than Denver, with that $1,500 getting you 689 square feet.
In Colorado Springs, you’ll be living a more spacious life at 838 square feet.
Regionally, your money goes furthest in North Las Vegas, where $1,500 pays for 926 square feet. Albuquerque and Las Vegas proper also offer more than 900 square feet per $1,500.
