It's unclear if or when the supply of entry level rental housing options will catch up with the demand, but some cities are building quickly.
334,000 new rental units are expected to be delivered nationwide by the end of 2021, according to an article by Florentina Sarac that explains the findings of a recent report by RentCafé using data from Yardi Matrix to complete the analysis. "And, despite challenges brought forth by the pandemic, eight metros are expected to hit five-year highs of new apartments."
Sarac writes that those figures are comparable to the previous four years "of construction boom," and they stand out even more in contrast with the figures from the housing crisis of 2008. "In 2021, there were nearly three times more apartments under construction than there were in 2011," according to Sarac.
Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix, is quoted in the article saying that the large amounts of new rental and multi-family supply will be met by large amounts of demand—as potential homebuyers are increasingly priced out of the market and as new renters enter the market.
The article also provides more local focus, noting that "the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metro is set to deliver the most units for the fourth year in a row. At the same time, metros like Phoenix; Charlotte, N.C.; or Orlando, Fla. — which haven’t been construction-crazed in the past — are now making waves with impressive numbers of projected new apartments."
FULL STORY: Despite Challenges, 2021 Apartment Construction Tops 330,000 for 5th Consecutive Year
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research