Fall 2026 Pre-Leasing Season Continues to Make Notable Progress

Five months into the Fall 2026 pre-lease season, the U.S. student housing market is almost 50% full.

As of February, 47.6% of student housing beds across the U.S. were pre-leased for the Fall 2026 school year. From January to February, leasing increased by 1,020 basis points (bps), which was right in line with the solid increase seen in February 2025 and the decade average for February activity in the Student Housing sector.

After starting the Fall 2026 pre-lease season at the slowest pace in over a decade, the market is quickly closing that gap, and momentum continues to build. In the past 10 years, February pre-leasing averaged at 48.5%, a bit above Fall 2026’s February showing. However, the gap between the current rate and the 10-year average (90 bps) is much smaller now than it was just two months ago (300 bps).

While Fall 2026’s February pre-lease rate is ahead of Fall 2025’s February reading, however, it was still behind the February showings topping 54% seen in Fall 2023 and Fall 2024 pre-leasing seasons. It should be noted, however, that while Fall 2025 pre-leasing started out slowly, it did end up being the strongest season in recent history. Fall 2026 does seem to be following that model as well.

(The core 175 universities tracked and forecasted by RealPage saw even more progress, with 49.4% pre-leased as of February. That was quite a boost from the 39.4% leased in January.)

Apartments located more than one mile from campus were 49.6% pre-leased in February. Properties closest – within a half mile of campus – were 47.3% as of February, while communities within a half mile to one mile of campus were 47.2% pre-leased. All three of these sectors made progress topping 1,000 bps during the month.

For more information on the state of the student housing industry, read previous posts on Student Housing.