Austin’s population growth, which has slowed to semi-explosive in the past couple of years, touched off a residential building boom aimed at accommodating all those new folks — especially in multifamily sector. While not as breathless as it has been in the past decade, Austin’s new apartment construction rate is still one of the highest in the country. Slipping from its 2023 No. 1 spot, the metro ranked third on RentCafe’s most recent report comparing the apartment-construction rate in the nation’s largest cities.
The report analyzed data for construction of new apartment buildings with 50 or more units in 369 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas. Metros with fewer than 300 units or fewer than two properties/buildings total were excluded.
Austin followed New York and Dallas, respectively, in the 2024 rankings. Some 32,935 units are expected to be delivered in New York this year, while the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex plans to have only three fewer than that number completed.
The Austin metro area is expected to gain 21,506 new apartments by the end of the year, 12,000 of them within city limits. According to the report:
In particular, the city of Austin alone is set to welcome an astounding 12,157 new apartments by year-end, or more than 56% of all expected deliveries in the metro — and it’s easy to see why: Austin is growing and evolving, propelled by a strong job market and opportunities in tech, healthcare, and hospitality, along with the arrival of major tech companies lured by Texas’ lack of income tax. Plus, remote work has consistently brought people from more expensive coastal cities, and even though housing prices are rising, apartments in Austin are still more affordable than those in places like San Francisco or New York.
Hutto, Leander, and Del Valle are also slated to gain thousands of new units in the next year.
