The issues that challenged homebuyers during the pandemic are well documented, with skyrocketing prices, low inventory levels and bidding wars topping the list. New residential construction was also confronted with the closure of approval authorities and interruptions in the supply chain of building materials (especially wood).
Despite the pandemic, there is good news for tenants in 2021: According to a new report from RentCafé, the construction of rental properties has remained almost at the same pace as in the last four energetic years of the apartment building. In 2021, more than 330,000 new rental units are expected to open across the country for the fifth year in a row, a decrease of only 2.5 percent compared to 2020.
This week's graph shows the top 20 metropolitan areas with the highest number of new units expected to open in 2021, and how that number has changed since 2020. RentCafé has analyzed the construction of rental buildings at the national level and only considered those with more than 50 units. Subway trains with a total of fewer than 300 units or fewer than two rental buildings were also not taken into account, so that 109 subway areas are in competition.
New development in the greater Dallas area has been on the rise in recent years, and that area topped the list with 21,173 new rental units expected to open this year (though the number represents a 13 percent decrease from 2020). . The New York metropolitan area was in second place with 19,375 units, an increase of 11 percent over the previous year. (It should be noted that the New York numbers do not include building data from the Bronx and Staten Island.)
In third place is the booming Phoenix with a forecast of 15,846 new units, an increase of 76 percent compared to the previous year. The largest annual increase in the top 20 was Charlotte, N.C., ranked 10th in the total number of units; Charlotte is expected to gain 10,723 units in 2021, a 100 percent increase from 2020.
Only six metropolitan areas, including the aforementioned Dallas, are projected to have fewer new homes than in 2020. The number of new units in Denver declined the most among the top 20 metros compared to the previous year, by 46 percent, with 5,581 units are to be opened.
