The U.S. will set a record for new apartment deliveries for the third year in a row, with developers on track to complete more than 518,000 new rental units in 2024, according to a new report compiled by RentCafe.
That is a 9% increase over new apartment unit deliveries in 2023 and 30% more than 2022.
The D.C. region is among metros with a healthy pipeline of new apartments coming to market this year. RentCafe ranks the D.C. metro No. 7, with 15,079 new units that will be delivered by the end of 2024. In the past five years, developers have completed 72,709 new apartment units in the D.C. metro, ranking No. 6 for five-year growth.
And looking ahead, RentCafe estimates D.C.-area developers will deliver another 58,052 new apartment units between now at 2028.
The D.C.-area rental market is benefiting from a construction pipeline that swelled during the pandemic.
“In D.C., there was a really big uptick in new projects pulling permits and breaking ground a couple of years ago in 2022,” said Chris Salviati at Apartment List. “The number of projects breaking ground has actually mellowed out a little bit, but because of that lag in construction time, all of those new projects from a couple of years ago are starting to hit the market now.”
More new apartments available will ease demand and may dampen the pace of rising rent. Compared to a year ago, average D.C. metro rents are up 3.5%, while the national average is down 1%, Apartment List reported.
The apartment vacancy rate in the D.C. area is currently 6.8%, little changed from a year ago.
RentCafe’s nationwide apartment construction report shows the New York City metro is leading new apartment unit delivery for the third year in a row, followed by Dallas and Austin. In the New York area, almost 33,000 new apartment units will be completed by the end of 2024. Dallas and Austin combined will see almost 54,000 new apartments completed this year, or 10% of the nationwide total of new units in 2024.
RentCafe’s full report on new apartment construction by metro this year, in the past five years and for the next five years can be found online.
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