DENVER (KDVR) — The expense of Colorado and the West, in general, is sending more would-be renters and buyers into cheaper Midwestern destinations.

The January housing market report from Realtor.com said the relentless march of Denver area rent has slowed along with the nation’s rent. Since last January, the metro-wide rent for all sizes of apartments rose only 1.2% – the fourth-lowest increase among the metros where rents went up.

Other cities similar to Denver displayed the same trend. Rents in popular cities such as San Francisco or Tampa swelled in the last two years, but in January, rent had only inched up from where they were a year ago.

Less expensive cities are seeing higher jumps in rent now.

Among the metro areas where rent climbed the highest in the last year are Birmingham, Milwaukee, Columbus, Kansas City, Cleveland and Rochester. Except for Milwaukee, each of these metro areas still has median rents under $1,300 per month. Of the metro areas with rents under $1,300, nearly all are in the Midwest.

The home sales market shows the same.

Popular home sales markets as measured by Realtor.com are almost entirely in the Midwest or the Northeast.

The price of these homes has drawn people outpaced in the West or some popular southern Sun Belt cities. The average median sales price of the 20 hottest markets is $326,650 – just over half the price of the typical Denver area home.