Apartment Markets Where Apartment Construction Activity Has Dried Up

At the end of 2025, there were 16 markets (out of the nation’s 150 largest) lacking apartment construction activity. That was up from the 10 markets without construction one year ago and up from the six markets lacking activity two years earlier, according to data from RealPage Market Analytics. The longest dry spell among the nation’s largest 150 apartment markets was in Youngstown-Warren/Hermitage. That market has not had any apartment construction activity in about seven years (since 2nd quarter 2018). The second and third longest dry spells were in Urban Honolulu which hasn’t seen any new apartment construction since 3rd quarter 2022 and Midland/Odessa which has lacked development activity since 2nd quarter 2023. Five of these 16 markets ranked among the top 10 for occupancy in February, with the nation’s tightest reading in Youngstown at 98.9%, followed by Atlantic City-Hammonton (#2 at 97.6%) and Flint (#5 at 97.4%). Meanwhile, McAllen/Brownsville and Midland/Odessa ranked among the nation’s 10 weakest occupancy rates, both at 92.8%. Likewise, effective asking rent change was varied during the year-ending February 2026. Urban Honolulu and Champaign-Urbana posted the nation’s second- and third-largest rent hikes nationally, at 7.7% and 5.7%, respectively. Atlantic City-Hammonton (-1.1%), Eugene-Springfield (-0.7%) and Midland/Odessa (-0.6%) were the only markets without development activity to cut rents during that period.