RealPage Identifies Some Suburban Gems for Near-Term Potential

Suburban apartments have generally outperformed downtown units in recent years and are expected to continue to do so in the near term. Some individual suburban locales particularly stand out for solid investment potential.

In a recent webcast, RealPage analysts identified 10 neighborhoods where rent levels top the market average, have expanding employment centers with large numbers of high-paying jobs and offer attractive living environments that produce solid renter demand.

It should be noted that this list excludes typically favored suburban locales where expected performances are good but fall a little short on expected rent growth due to future new product deliveries.

Three Phoenix neighborhoods are among the 10 preferred suburban locales, including Chandler, South Scottsdale and North Tempe. These are some of the pricier suburbs in the market, with big job centers and sizable blocks of Class A and B apartments. North Tempe and Chandler have also been big demand winners in the past year. Overall, the Phoenix market has been a strong rent growth contender in recent years. When much of the nation saw declines in recent months, Phoenix has held onto solid growth.

Southern suburbs were also big contenders on this list, led by Virginia Beach’s Chesapeake submarket, West Nashville, Memphis’ Cordova area, and Far West Austin. Memphis was the nation’s rent growth leader in 2nd quarter, while Virginia Beach also made the list of markets still logging progress.

For more information on these suburban locales, and why they made the list, watch the webcast Up Close and Local: The ‘Burbs Market Update.