Multifamily report brings hopeful signs — and some concern — for Twin Cities apartment market

The average apartment rent in the United States increased by $2 in July, hitting $1,460, according to the most recent national multifamily report from Yardi Matrix. That’s good news for owners and landlords: That increase, even if it was a fairly modest one, ended a four-month streak of falling apartment rents.

According to the report, 25 of the top 30 apartment markets in the country performed better in July than in June.

This doesn’t mean, though, that COVID-19 and the economic uncertainty rising from it, isn’t still impacting the apartment market. According to Yardi Matrix, year-over-year rent growth in July remained negative at -0.3 percent.

Despite rising unemployment and the federal government’s failure to pass a second emergency relief bill, most renters are still making their rent payments on time each month. Yardi Matrix reported that 91.3 percent of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by July 20.

The Minneapolis/St. Paul apartment market performed well in July, according to Yardi Matrix’s numbers. Average apartment rents here grew in the month by just under 2 percent. That might not sound too impressive, but only two Midwest markets saw average rents grow by a higher percentage, Indianapolis and Kansas City.

On a year-over-year basis, monthly apartment rents rose by 1.7 percent this July in the Twin Cities when compared to the same month a year earlier. Occupancy rates, though, are slightly down. Yardi Matrix reported that Twin Cities apartment units had an occupancy rate of 97 percent as of June of 2019. In June of 2020, this rate had dipped to 95.8 percent.