Axiometrics Inc., a Dallas-based provider of data and advisory services on the apartment market, reports that national effective rents increased by 0.89% from February to March, which the company says is the highest sequential growth rate since it began surveying its property database monthly in April 2008.
Axiometrics also reports that year-to-date effective rents increased 1.81%, as compared to 1.84% over the same period in 2011. The national occupancy rate also increased on a sequential basis for the second consecutive month, rising from 93.61% in February to 93.94% in March. The company says this was the largest month-to-month gain in occupancy since August 2010.
‘In 167 submarkets, effective rents have increased more than 15 percent since December 2009,’ says Ron Johnsey, president of Axiometrics. ‘Of those submarkets, 51 have seen effective rents grow more than 20 percent. Those high-growth submarkets are the places where we see the most new apartment construction. Many of these are urban core submarkets with a high concentration of Class A assets, though there are also some lower-tier submarkets where we've already seen shovels in the ground.’
The company also forecasts that several markets are poised for effective rent growth greater than 6% this year, with the San Jose, Calif., market leading the nation with a 5% rent increase in the first three months of this year.
