Apartment occupancy in Detroit climbed notably during the past three months, and now ranks among the nation’s strongest performances. Occupancy in Detroit hit 97.1% in July 2020, the best showing since September 2019. This relatively affordable apartment market has seen occupancy climb 110 basis points (bps) since April, quite a feat given that most of the nation has either maintained essentially flat occupancy or experienced steep declines during that time frame. In fact, among the nation’s largest 50 apartment markets, only Virginia Beach logged occupancy growth as strong as Detroit since April. Helping to keep occupancy in the Motor City moving forward, apartment construction volumes in this market have been modest. While the apartment base in the nation overall grew by 14.6% in the past 10-year delivery cycle, Detroit saw its existing base increase by a much milder 2.6%. Moving forward, Detroit’s construction volumes are expected to continue at a limited pace.
