April 21, 2025 | Limited for-sale housing inventory coupled with a wage increase of 3.8% YoY contributed to strong demand for multifamily units in 1Q25 that helped drive rent and occupancy gains in the quarter. According to RealPage, 138,300 market rate multifamily units were absorbed in 1Q25, the strongest first-quarter demand figure ever recorded by RealPage and 22,200 units more than the 116,100 units that were delivered. Strong absorption contributed to occupancy increasing to 95.2% nationwide and effective rents increasing by 1.1% YoY. Gateway and secondary markets in the Midwest and Northeast recorded the strongest rent growth. These markets include New York City (5.5%), Chicago (3.7%), Kansas City (3.7%), Columbus (3.5%) and Philadelphia (3.2%). In contrast, rents continued to fall in Southern markets with high inventory such as Austin (-5.4%), Phoenix (-3.0%), Dallas (-1.7%) and Atlanta (-1.6%).

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Research contact:
Debo Ayeni

Research sponsored by ABR Capital Partners