Here Are the Apartment Markets With the Worst Occupancies

Multifamily supply waves have been a reaction to changing demographics in hot economic areas, particularly in the South. The expectations for this year are half again higher than in 2023, which was an all-time record.

But in basic economics, a leap in supply without matching heavier demand means someone will have inventory on their hands. That is happening in some Southeast and Gulf Coast Metros, according to RealPage, where the 10 worst apartment occupancy performers see vacancies climb in the largest multifamily supply wave in 40 years.

“In May, the worst occupancy performers in the U.S. accounted for more than 749,600 apartment vacancies nationally,” the firm wrote. “Heavily concentrated in Gulf Coast states and the southeast, 11 markets logged occupancy at or below 92%.”

• The worst performer in May was Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach. Vacancies were up to 45,500 units to hit a rate of 90.3%. The greater southern average is 93.2%.
• Next was San Antonio, which had 210,300 vacant units at 91.2%.
• Augusta and Baton Rouge — 29,600 and 46,600 vacancies respectively — were at 91.4%.
• Memphis was at 91.8%, with 101,400 open units.
• Jacksonville was up to 92% and 131,400 units.
• Colorado Springs (92%), Cape Coral-Fort Myers (92%), Corpus Christi (91.5%), Shreveport (91.7%), and Lubbock (91.7%) had between 23,500 and 53,000 units.

Those were the worst but even so, all major Texas markets — Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio — had occupancies of less than 93%.

For greater context from RealPage, throughout the U.S., May 2024 was the seventh month in which average occupancy was at least 94.1%, suggesting stabilization. In May, the figure rose slightly to 94.2%. Regionally it was 94.8% in the Midwest, 95.8% in the Northeast, 93.2% in the South, and 94.6% in the West/

“In fact, for 17 consecutive months now, the needle on occupancy hasn’t moved more than 10 basis points (bps) in either direction,” they wrote. “Occupancy was easing downward for much of 2023, but now the rate has remained essentially stable for the first five months of 2024.”

May also saw eight of the top 50 markets achieve year-over-year occupancy rate increases. They were Richmond, West Palm Beach, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Detroit, Greensboro/Winston-Salem, Sacramento and San Jose.

Occupancy rates aren’t the only measures of how markets are doing. Rents were up 0.2% year over year in May. By region, it was 2.6% in the Midwest, 2.4% in the Northeast, 0.0% in the West, and -1.4% in the South.