Welcome to Part II of our three part series, "How Far People Will Go to Live in Denver." In Part I, we discovered that people would live with a pair of murderous baboons in a reasonably-priced house to avoid Denver's skyrocketing rental prices. And this week, we've found that people would be happy to live in a home that is currently on fire.

Welcome to Part II of our three part series, "How Far People Will Go to Live in Denver." In Part I, we discovered that people would live with a pair of murderous baboons in a reasonably-priced house to avoid Denver's skyrocketing rental prices. And this week, we've found that people would be happy to live in a home that is currently on fire.

Some background: Denver has the second-fastest growing rental market in the country. Thousands of people are moving here, but with a 96% rental home occupancy rate, rental prices are skyrocketing as desirable places to live disappear at unprecedented rates. And that made us wonder; how far will people go to live in Denver? How much will they pay to live inside city limits? What kind of weird, shitty living situations would they endure? Well, for starters, they'd live with baboons.

We tested our question by placing a fake ad on the Denver Craigslist to see how far people were willing to go to live here. This week, it advertised a "currently burning home for rent."

But before we get to the kinds of responses we got to that, here are some facts, compiled by Axiometrics, about Denver's rental market to get you in the mood.

  • Rents in the Denver area grew 9 percent on average from July of 2013 to this July, which was the second-fastest rate in the country behind San Francisco.
  • The nationwide rental market growth rate was 4 percent.
  • Rental rates have risen at an above-average pace in the Denver area for about four years.
  • Rental unit occupancy is at 96 percent. That means you're competing with a massive influx of new residents for four percent of available units.
  • The average monthly rent in Denver is $1,041.
  • The largest increases were found in Denver County and the Boulder/Broomfield area, where average rents grew by 8.1 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively.
  • The rental boom is credited to job availability in the tech and MMJ sectors, amount of (previously) affordable housing, good education, and high quality of life.

We'd also credit the currently exploding music, comedy and art scenes, the craft beer industry, the insane amount of outdoor shit you can do, the food scene, the relatively mild weather (we said relatively, don't freak out), and the fact that everyone here is a highly-intelligent supermodel philanthropist. The marijuana industry was mentioned as a reason for Denver's population growth, but we're just gonna mention it again right … here. Yeah; there's no getting around it. Colorado is the best place to live right now.

Okay, so now that we've established how Denver and its surrounding metro area (yes, you Boulder,) is bringing all the boys the yard, let's see how people responded to our flaming house ad. Here it is:

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a property of mine is on fire due to a neighboring meth lab, and I'm guessing it has some pretty bad fire damage. it was worth a lot before the fire, but in its current condition, im putting it up for an extremely discounted rate.

Fire trucks comin' now, i can hear them.

Pros
1. great neighborhood in uptown, close to lots of bars and restaurants
2. walkability score 92
3. tons of free street parking
4. dishwasher
5. heat
6. big, spacious
7. each bedroom has its own bathroom
8. pets welcome
9.

Cons
1. gonna have to patch the place up pretty quick after the fire, so its no Mariott inside
2. no laundry

Used to rent this place for 2500. hard to find a place like this in uptown. flexible lease. avail now

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Of course, some people thought the ad was totally insane…

… But again, like last week, we were shocked to find that people had a legitimate interest in the place.

People even wanted to help us fix it up.

Others were mainly just concerned someone was going to fix it up at some point, but were still down.

And most bizarrely, some people were actually attracted to it because it was an honest representation of a home.

The weirdest part is that this "currently burning" house is $1,200 a month. That's above the average monthly per-person rental cost in Denver, which is $1,041. What the fucking fuck?

Again, we sympathize with these peoples' interest in the house. People love fixer-uppers, it's cheap for a two bedroom with a yard, and despite being engulfed in flames as we speak, the location and amenities don't sound too shabby. And you know what? You could probably smoke some mean salmon in the ever-sizzling embers.

But no matter how many smoldering pieces of what once was a house we find on the good side of this demonstration, this week's Denver rental odyssey just goes to show the insane lengths people will go to make living in Denver possible. We just hope they don't mind smelling a little smoky.