Apartment Vacancy Rate Stays Low, Surprising Researchers
Dec 6, 2016 | Bendix Anderson | NREI
Experts warned that hundreds of thousands of new apartments would open in 2016 and drive up the vacancy in the sector. But for most of this year, average vacancy rates stayed low.
“The market has proved to be incredibly resilient,” says John Sebree, first vice president and national director of the national multi housing group at brokerage firm Marcus & Millichap “The apartment business is far more positive and far stronger than we expected to be at the beginning of 2016.”
Strong demand partly helped fill many new units. Also, construction delays held up a significant number of apartment projects, which will now open next year. Vacancy rates are still anticipated to rise in 2017, when even more new apartments will open than in 2016. However, experts now expect the U.S. vacancy rate to stay at or below 5.0 percent.
“With job growth numbers remaining steady, there is not a perception that we are going off a cliff,” says Sebree.
