Demand for Apartments Projected to Stay Strong as Supply Struggles to Keep Up

New studies by the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) and the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University predict that demand for apartment housing will stay strong due to population increases, delayed marriages, and the lack of affordable owner-occupied homes. The NMHC study projects that developers must build 325,000 apartment units per year to keep up with the current demand, well above the 2012-16 average of 244,000 units per year. Over the last four years, 1 million new renter households were formed, bringing the total number of renter households to 39 million in the U.S. Along with the increase in demand, high prices for rental housing are exacerbated by the sharp rise in costs for land and construction. Read more.