During the first three months of the year, renters absorbed 6,520 apartment units, the best quarterly demand performance seen since fall 2007. The number of occupied apartment climbed 9,970 units between March 2009 and March 2010.

MPF Research vice president Greg Willett attributes the improvement to the corresponding improvement in the local economy, along with a large influx of people who have moved to the Metroplex over the past several months.

"Despite the fact that Texas lost jobs last year, Dallas/Fort Worth had an in-migration of 100,000 people," Willett notes. "We continue to attract new households because the job prospects, and once we get in the upside of the cycle, the recovery will be comparatively fast. It doesn't ease the pain so far, but it does position us better moving ahead."