Colorado Springs has spent the last few years absorbing one of the biggest apartment construction booms in its history, and renters are still feeling the effects. More than 14,800 units went up across the metro between 2022 and 2025 — more than the entire prior two decades combined — which pushed rents down roughly 12.5% from their 2022 peak, one of the steepest declines of any U.S. metro. At the same time, the city's identity as a military town hasn't changed: Fort Carson, Peterson Space Force Base, Schriever Space Force Base, and the U.S. Air Force Academy keep a steady stream of service members and their families cycling through the rental market year-round, insulating certain neighborhoods from the swings that hit the citywide average. Add in the Front Range's hiking, climbing, and Pikes Peak scenery, plus a tech and defense-sector job base that keeps growing, and Colorado Springs remains a market where rents vary a lot depending on which part of town — and which type of tenant — you're talking about. It also remains meaningfully cheaper than Denver an hour up the interstate, which keeps drawing remote workers and Denver-metro transplants south even as local construction slows down.
Average Rent in Colorado Springs by Unit Type
Rent-tracking platforms don't agree on exact numbers, which is normal — each pulls from a different pool of active listings and updates on its own schedule. The table below shows figures from two of the most-cited sources, plus the federal government's benchmark rent used for housing-assistance calculations, so you can see the range rather than a single potentially misleading average.
| Unit Type | Zumper (Jul. 2026) | RentCafe (Jul. 2026) | HUD Fair Market Rent (FY2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | $947 | $992 | $1,196 |
| 1 Bedroom | $1,100 | $1,354 | $1,464 |
| 2 Bedroom | $1,495 | $1,614 | $1,735 |
| 3 Bedroom | $2,208 | $2,026 | $2,413 |
The gap between Zumper's and RentCafe's numbers — roughly $250 to $400 depending on unit size — comes down to sample composition: Zumper leans on active listing data that skews toward newer, amenity-heavy buildings competing hardest on price right now, while RentCafe's averages include a broader mix of the standing apartment stock. HUD's Fair Market Rent, used to set Section 8 voucher payment standards for El Paso County, runs higher than both market-rate trackers this cycle, which reflects its own lag (it's calculated from Census survey data plus local market adjustments, not real-time listings) and the fact that it's built to cover a broad geographic area including higher-cost ZIP codes. Bottom line: for a realistic budget, expect a one-bedroom in Colorado Springs to land somewhere between roughly $1,100 and $1,470 depending on the building and neighborhood, and treat any single number you see quoted elsewhere as a starting point, not gospel.
It's also worth sizing rent against what local households actually earn. Census American Community Survey data compiled by USAFacts shows renters in the Colorado Springs metro area spend an average of about $1,699/month on rent, equal to roughly 33% of household income — right at the traditional affordability threshold housing counselors use, and a reminder that even a "below-national-average" market can still stretch a paycheck thin depending on what you're renting and where.
Rent by Neighborhood
Colorado Springs rents vary more by submarket than the citywide average suggests. On the affordable end, RentCafe puts Pikes Peak Park around $1,040/month, Knob Hill around $1,053, and Venetian Village around $1,107 — all older, centrally located pockets. Zumper's data shows a similar story with Park Hill as the most affordable tracked neighborhood at roughly $1,219/month, followed by mid-range areas like Downtown Colorado Springs (about $1,637) and Village Seven (about $1,674).
At the top end, both platforms point to the same newer, master-planned developments: RentCafe lists Trailridge and Springs Ranch around $1,880/month and Northgate around $1,873, while Zumper shows Stetson Hills near $2,349 and Wolf Ranch — one of the city's newest large developments on the north side — near $2,749 for its available unit mix.
Military bases add a distinct layer to this map. Homes and apartments near Fort Carson and Peterson Space Force Base regularly command rent premiums of 5% to 10% over comparable older properties nearby, according to a 2026 single-family rental market analysis, because military tenants with steady Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) income create dependable, lower-risk demand. The Southwest El Paso County submarket near Fort Carson has held up especially well through the broader rent correction, with occupancy around 94% by the end of 2025 and one of the only positive rent-growth readings in the metro. If you're stationed at or working near Fort Carson, Peterson, Schriever, or the Air Force Academy, budgeting toward the higher end of your unit type's range is realistic — and worth it for the shorter commute and stronger resale/rental demand if you ever buy instead.
Outside the base-adjacent submarkets, character neighborhoods like Old Colorado City and areas near downtown tend to command a premium for walkability and older housing stock with more charm, while newer subdivisions further from the urban core — on the far north side toward Monument, or east toward Falcon — generally trade lower price-per-square-foot for a longer commute. As with most mid-sized metros, the general rule holds: the closer you get to downtown, a major employer, or a military installation, the more you'll pay per square foot, and the more that premium tends to hold up even when the citywide average is falling.
2026 Rent Trends
Colorado Springs enters 2026 at an inflection point. After the apartment-building surge of 2022–2024 (over 6,000 new units delivered in 2024 alone) pushed rents down for three straight years, new construction has slowed dramatically — fewer than 1,000 new units are expected to deliver in 2025–2026, a fraction of the recent pace. Market analysts tracking the metro project that reduced competition from new supply, combined with continued population growth and a resilient job market, will let demand catch back up to supply by mid-2026, with forecasts calling for positive rent growth again (roughly 2.8% annualized) by the end of the year. In practical terms, that means renters who found unusually generous concessions and negotiating leverage in 2024–2025 should expect that window to start closing, particularly in the submarkets that never really softened, like Southwest El Paso County near Fort Carson.
The city's broader housing shortage is also shaping the rental market from the sell side: a regional housing needs assessment released by the City of Colorado Springs found a shortfall of roughly 27,000 housing units today, growing to a projected 60,000-unit need by 2035 if production doesn't accelerate. That structural gap is part of why analysts expect the current rent dip to be a pause rather than a long-term trend — and why locking in a lease while the market is still relatively soft can make sense for renters who have the flexibility to do so.
Landlords are already adjusting their strategy in response. Property management commentary heading into 2026 points to owners pulling back on the free-month and reduced-deposit concessions that became common during the oversupplied 2024–2025 stretch, and shifting focus toward tenant retention and gradual rent adjustments as occupancy tightens back up. For renters, that means the negotiating leverage available over the past two years — asking for a lower rate, a waived pet fee, or a free parking spot on renewal — is likely to shrink as 2026 progresses, especially in submarkets that never really softened in the first place, like the areas closest to Fort Carson.
Finding a Place Without Broker Fees
Between a market this data-fragmented and a state adding new tenant protections every legislative session, it pays to go straight to listings posted directly by landlords rather than paying a broker fee on top of an already-uncertain rent number. Emlakie lists Colorado Springs rentals directly from landlords and property owners, with no broker fees of its own tacked onto your move-in costs.