Report: Houston rents, occupancy unchanged from earlier this year

The pool at the 2929 Weslayan apartment tower. The pool at the 2929 Weslayan apartment tower. Photo: Houston Apartment Association Photo: Houston Apartment Association Image 1 of / 41 Caption Close Report: Houston rents, occupancy unchanged from earlier this year 1 / 41 Back to Gallery

Demand for apartments has surged to near-record levels, reflecting a solid job market, abundant supply and a limited loss of renters to home purchases, a new national study shows.

Apartment occupancy at midyear was 95 percent nationwide, essentially full, according to a report from Richardson-based real estate data firm RealPage. That's up from the previous quarter but down slightly from a year ago.

Despite an oversupply of rentals in Houston, occupancy came in at almost 93 percent at the end of the second quarter as demand outstripped supply. Occupancy was flat compared with the first quarter, but down 1.3 percent from a year ago.

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Local rents didn't change much either from earlier this year at $1,030 on average. Rents, however, were down 1.6 percent from 2016.

Nationally, there were virtually no vacancies recorded in older apartment complexes, meaning the availability is concentrated in new projects. That's true in Houston, as well.

Axiometrics, a part of RealPage, reports that 130 new properties are competing for renters, compared with 87 in Dallas.

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"In urban core settings, those new deliveries are clustered really tightly," Axiometrics Vice President Jay Denton said in a statement. "It's not unusual to have multiple projects within blocks of each other all simultaneously moving through initial lease-up."