Developers are expected to add more apartment units across the United States this year than they have in the last decade, according to new research from RENTCafe.
According to the company, more than 320,000 new apartments are expected to be completed in 2016. That is a jump of 50 percent from 2015.
Texas leads the way, with more than 69,000 units projected to be completed in 2016 in the metropolitan areas of Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, Houston and San Antonio. Chicago ranks 14th on RENTCafe’s list of hot apartment markets, with developers expected to deliver 8,377 new apartment units to the metropolitan area by the time this year ends.
The only other Midwest market to make this list was Nashville, which is expected to add 6,536 new apartment units this year.
One-bedroom units will make up the biggest slice of new apartment units this year. RENTCafe reports that 51 percent of the new apartment units coming in 2016 are of the one-bedroom variety. Studio apartments are the rarest type of new unit coming online in 2016, accounting for just 4.7 percent of the new rental inventory.
As demand for new apartments continues to rise, so do rents. RENTCafe reports that the national average monthly apartment rent stood at $1,213 in June, an all-time high. Occupancy for completed properties across the country stood at 96.1 percent as of the end of the first quarter of 2016, according to the company.
