Apartment Occupancy Ticks Up in April
The national average for apartment occupancy has inched up month over month to 94.2% in April, the first increase since February 2022, according to RealPage Market Analytics.
While the increase is only 10 basis points (bps) above March, the trend was seen across all four major regions.
“April’s positive occupancy increase highlights strengthening apartment demand is carrying forward from the highest-ever first quarter tally, which saw more than 100,000 units absorbed on net,” said RealPage senior director of research and analysis Carl Whitaker. “It also suggests demand trends are returning to more normal seasonal patterns, whereby the late spring/early summer months see the strongest demand.”
The average apartment rent growth, however, was restrained due to the influx of new supply. According to RealPage, effective asking rents for professionally managed apartments only saw a 0.2% month-over-month bump in April and an even slimmer year-over-year growth figure of 0.1%.
The year-over-year growth figure has remained close to zero since August, with RealPage predicting much of the same for the remainder of 2024.