Here are the apartment markets with the worst occupancy

Multi-family supply waves have been a reaction to changing demographics in economic hotspots, particularly in the South. Expectations for this year are again half as high as in 2023, which was an all-time record.

But in basic economics, a jump in supply without matching higher demand means that someone will have inventory on their hands. This is happening in several Southeast and Gulf Coast metros, according to RealPagewhere the 10 worst apartment housing performers see vacancies rise in the biggest wave of multifamily supply in 40 years.

“In May, the worst housing performers in the U.S. accounted for more than 749,600 apartment vacancies nationwide,” the firm wrote. “Heavily concentrated in the Gulf Coast states and the Southeast, 11 markets recorded frequency at or below 92%.

• The worst performer in May was Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach. Vacancies were up 45,500 units to reach a rate of 90.3%. The largest southern average is 93.2%.
• Next was San Antonio, which had 210,300 units vacant at 91.2%.
• Augusta and Baton Rouge — 29,600 and 46,600 vacancies, respectively — were at 91.4%.
• Memphis was at 91.8%, with 101,400 units open.
• Jacksonville was up 92% and 131,400 units.
• Colorado Springs (92%), Cape Coral-Fort Myers (92%), Corpus Christi (91.5%), Shreveport (91.7%) and Lubbock (91.7%) had between 23,500 and 53,000 units.

Those were the worst, but even so, all of Texas’ top markets — Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio — had votes of less than 93%.

FRI larger context from RealPage, across the US, May 2024 was the seventh month in which the average frequency was at least 94.1%, suggesting stabilization. In May, this figure increased slightly to 94.2%. Regionally it was 94.8% in the Midwest, 95.8% in the Northeast, 93.2% in the South and 94.6% in the West/

“In fact, for 17 consecutive months, the housing needle has not moved more than 10 basis points (bps) in either direction,” they wrote. “Optation was softening for most of 2023, but now the rate has remained essentially flat for the first five months of 2024.”

In May, eight of the top 50 markets achieved year-over-year occupancy rate increases. They were Richmond, West Palm Beach, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Detroit, Greensboro/Winston-Salem, Sacramento and San Jose.

Occupancy rates are not the only measures of how markets are doing. Rents rose 0.2% year over year in May. By region, it was 2.6% in the Midwest, 2.4% in the Northeast, 0.0% in the West and -1.4% in the South.