Albuquerque apartment rental agency pivots due to market conditions

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The rental market in the Albuquerque metro is tight – prices are higher than they’ve ever been and there aren’t many affordable places to rent.

The Apartment Store near Montgomery and Louisiana has been helping renters find a place to live for decades. Properties needing occupants paid locators for getting them rented, but now The Apartment Store is closing that side of their business.

“Thank you Albuquerque for 36 years… However, due to market conditions and with saddened hearts, The Apartment Store has closed the Apartment Locating side of our business and currently we are only working with private rentals.”

Owner Bobbie Burkdoll said it’s another sign of the times.

“The last couple years just got really rough,” she said. “Inventory was going down, prices were going up. We were losing property, we had no inventory.”

According to Rent.com, the average price for a two-bedroom is $1,486 – that’s up 22% from this time last year. Burkdoll has seen people priced out, which also made her decide to close.

“That’s why we shut down,” Burkdoll said. “It got extremely depressing when they would come to my office and even breakdown crying because they didn’t have a place to go. It was always the people who your heart goes out to and when you just can’t help them anymore, it’s kind of, why bother?”

Burkdoll had to pivot. Instead of finding apartments, she helps homeowners list their properties for rent.

“Inventory is still low – when we do have something available it rents almost immediately,” she said.

So what’s the answer? Burkdoll said more rental properties need to be built. Even though the metro is seeing more apartments being constructed, Burkdoll said many are billed as “luxury,” with not enough affordable housing on the horizon.