Memphis, Tennessee, has the highest apartment vacancy rate among the nation's largest multifamily markets, while New York City has the lowest.
The West Tennessee market’s vacancy has steadily risen from a low of 4.7% in the third quarter of 2021 to 13.3% on April 13, according to CoStar data. New York City’s region was at 2.4% last week, higher than a record low of 1.83% a year earlier. But that was lower than the pandemic peak of 3.6% in at the end of 2020’s third quarter during shutdowns when residents were leaving urban areas.
New York City’s region has the highest number of units under construction of any market in the country with 65,194. But it also has the largest number of existing units at 1.5 million, which puts the current construction level at roughly 4.2% of that total.
The apartment market in Memphis is about the size of the West Bronx within New York City with 98,855 units. It has 2,956 under construction, or 2.9% of the existing units.
Meanwhile, overall demand for apartments has declined over the past 12 months. According to CoStar data, 2,437 more apartments have emptied than have been leased over that span.
Demand, however, is expected to strengthen when Ford Motor Co. opens BlueOval City close to the outer reaches of the Memphis suburbs in 2025 with some 6,000 works making electric vehicles and batteries.