Despite short-term challenges in apartment occupancy across the Midwest in August, new research from RealPage suggests that the region's multifamily market continues to outpace the national average.
RealPage evaluated the 50 largest multifamily markets in the U.S. and found that while the national average occupancy rate reached 94.1% in August, the largest markets in the Midwest achieved an average occupancy rate of 94.7%.
In Milwaukee, apartment occupancy reached 95.8% in August, despite a decrease of 80 basis points year over year. The city ranked as the fourth-best performing market in the country, following New York, Newark, and Anaheim, all of which typically maintain occupancy rates above 95.9%.
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Meanwhile, "Detroit was one of only five major apartment markets across the U.S. to experience occupancy growth of 50 basis points or more in the past year," said Kim O'Brien, the study's author. "[It] was the only Midwest market where occupancy increased over the past year."
The only major markets in the region with occupancy rates below the national average in August were St. Louis and Indianapolis, according to RealPage. These cities saw year-over-year declines in occupancy of more than 40 basis points, finishing the month with occupancy rates of 93.7% and 93.6%, respectively.
RealPage's analysis comes two months after Apartments.com reported that the national vacancy rate for multifamily housing had reached 7.8% by the end of the second quarter. Rents in the Northeast and Midwest increased by 2.4% compared to the second quarter of 2023, Apartments.com found, while rent growth in Western and Southern markets was 0.5% and 0.0%, respectively. The firm noted that an influx of new apartments in the South is likely to keep asking rents flat in the short term, while Midwest and Northeast markets are expected to continue to outperform.
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