DENVER (KDVR) — Data from real estate and rental companies shows that the Denver area is still losing its shine as the it-city for movers.
Colorado’s population, particularly along the heavily populated Front Range from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, has exploded over the last 20 years. However, Colorado’s move-ins have slowed from its peak in 2015. In 2021, the state had fewer people move in than in any other year since 2005.
There is no current U.S. Census Bureau data or Colorado Office of Demography data that says how many people moved in and out of Colorado or Denver in the latter half of 2022 or the first month of 2023.
Search habits and real estate leads from Rent.com and Redfin, however, said more people are trying to leave Colorado and the Denver area than trying to enter.
According to Rent.com’s migration report for the third quarter of 2022, Colorado had one of the nation’s highest so-called “negative leads.”
The rental industry uses the term “lead” when a would-be renter requests information about a place to live. A negative lead means more outbound searches. The lower the negative lead, the more likely that a state is losing popularity.
Colorado has a lead of negative 16.43. This is the nation’s fifth-highest negative lead outside Illinois, Maine, New York and Vermont. Midwestern and southeastern states, meanwhile, have positive leads.
It isn’t just rent searches. Homeownership data shows people are looking to leave Colorado as well.
Real estate brokerage Redfin measures the ratio of home searchers looking to enter a city and leave it.
Denver ranked among the 10 cities with the largest net outflow – meaning more home searchers were looking to leave Denver than enter it.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, there were 2,700 more home searchers looking to leave than move in. Redfin’s report said 31% of all of its Denver users were searching for homes somewhere else – the nation’s second-highest share.