Survey Pegs Attached Garages as Most Valuable Apartment Amenity

Von Stroh, in his exhaustive apartment survey of the Denver-area, has added a new feature that tracks monthly rents in apartments with certain amenities and those without.The survey tracks 22 different amenities and monthly rents for efficiency, one-bedroom, two-bedroom one bath, two-bedroom two bath, three bedrooms, and a total of all types of apartments.

Von Stroh admits that one feature alone - such as a nine-foot ceiling or a clubhouse - may not be the determining factor for the rent difference. Other variables would be location and the age of units, for examples. And clearly many communities, especially the newer luxury ones, will provide a number of the features.

Yet Von Stroh tells GlobeSt.com that he knows of no other survey that tries to quantify in economic terms the value of various amenities. What his most recent report shows is that all units that provide an attached garage boast an average monthly rent of $1,045.69, 42.7% higher than the $732.39 average rent for units without attached garages.

Dishwashers also pay off big time. Units with dishwashers have an average monthly rent of $820.28, 33.9% more than the $695.69 for units without.

Fireplaces also appear to be important amenities. The average total monthly rent is $878.96 for those units, 32.6% more than the $662.39 without.

Units with washer/dryer hookups carry a 30.8% premium, at $910.23 per month, compared with $696.59 per month without.

Surprisingly, the lowest pay off amenity seems to be a clubhouse. Although it is a relatively expensive amenity, units in communities with a clubhouse command an average rent of $822.39, only 1.2% more than the $812.39 achieved by those without clubhouses.