WATCH: Research analyst explains rent increase in Colorado Springs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - Inflation is at the highest peak we’ve seen in over a decade for the cost of living. From 2019 to 2021 apartment rentals in Colorado Springs have spiked, taking a steep increase in monthly rates.

“From 2020 to 2021 the rent in Colorado Springs increased about 18 percent,” according to Nick Pain, the Senior Research Analyst and Insurance Expert for Quote Wizard by Lending Tree. “Essentially what we found is that rent is going up so quickly, because people are leaving major metropolitan cities like LA, NYC and Boston and moving to places like Colorado Springs. That has really driven the cost up, when we look at Colorado specifically. Back to the basics of supply and demand. The concern is, this prices locals out because people who moving here are still making big city salaries.”

The increase in rent has more than doubled in about a decade, according to Pain.

“When we look at how housing costs have changed over the last decade, we found that since 2012, housing costs, meaning either rent or the price of owning a home has increased by 130% since 2012,” explained Pain. “What’s concerning about this is, when you see that 130% increase, in that same time period we’ve only seen wages rise by 30%. It’s been on ongoing trend of housing vastly outpacing people’s ability to pay for it, and that’s math, which ultimately just isn’t going to work out. The system cannot continue the way it is, something has to change.”

Pain says the push for affordable housing is the only way, on a city, county and state level that significant change can happen in the rental housing market.

You can listen to more about what Pain has to say in a one-on-one interview at the top of this article. Pain adds that at some level there has to be a balance out in order to keep housing at an affordable cost for the majority of people.

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