Multifamily Rent 2016 Forecast

According to the latest Bloomberg report, after 3 years of rapid rent growth, rents will likely start to flatten out in 2016 in most markets. In another projection report released by Zillow, by December 2015, year over year rent increase slowed to 1.1 percent across the U.S. That is following a 3 year period which rent grew by more than 3 percent each year.

The flattening out of rent increases can be contributed to the easing of demand. During the last recession there was a halt in construction of new apartments, which contributed to the pent-up demand.  Now new construction has caught up with demand and vacancy rates has increased in the last two quarters of 2015 for the first time since 2009.

However, Zillow expects rents in major west coast cities such as San Francisco, San jose, Seattle and Portland to outperform the National trend.