Neighborhoods in urban cores are seeing the highest rates of new apartment construction in the last five years, signaling a continued interest in downtown living despite fears of an 'urban exodus' brought on by the pandemic.
A recent analysis by RentCafe shows that 'hyper-urban' downtown neighborhoods have seen the most active apartment construction in the last five years, reports Florentina Sarac.
"Despite the fact that downtown areas haven’t always been desirable places to live in, that has certainly changed in the last decade," writes Sarac. The article lists the top 20 neighborhoods for apartment construction in the U.S., led by downtown Los Angeles with 10,136, or a whopping 39% of the city's new apartment supply and twice as many apartments as any other neighborhood. Other popular areas include Midtown Atlanta, Hunters Point in Queens, New York, and Downtown Fort Worth, Texas. The neighborhood with the highest share of new apartments in its city was San Jose, California, where tech workers continue to fuel an intensely competitive housing market.
These numbers show that despite concerns about COVID-19 transmission, urban cores remain attractive places to live. Once the bastion of 9-to-5 workers, some experts say central business districts will likely transform into multi-purpose neighborhoods as the demand for physical office space falls.
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