It is the second highest vacancy rate since Gordon Von Stroh, a business professor at the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver, began tracking the apartment market for the Apartment Association of Metro Denver in 1983.

In 1986, when the market was reeling from the oil boom crash, the vacancy rate hit 13.9%. In the first quarter of 2002, the vacancy rate stood at 11.7% and a year earlier, it was at 8.7%.

Downtown Denver, because of all of the new construction, had a vacancy rate of 27.5%. Only northern Douglas County had a higher vacancy rate at 28%.

Throughout the metro area, buildings with 350 and more units had the highest vacancy rate at an average of 13.7%, up from 12.4% in the fourth quarter of 2002.

Buildings with 200 to 349 units had an average vacancy rate of 22.3%.

Buildings constructed since 2000 had the highest average vacancy rate at 22.3%. These buildings tend to be Class-A communities with the most amenities and the highest rental rates.

Buildings constructed between 1950 and 1959 had the lowest vacancy rate at 6.1%.

Older buildings are suffering less during this latest downturn, CB Richard Ellis broker Steve Rahe tells GlobeSt.com. For the overall market, supply and demand is out of whack, he tells GlobeSt.com.

But despite the overbuilding and slow demand, there is plenty of money chasing properties and few sellers, he tells GlobeSt.com.