Although there are many major metros seeing an uptick in multifamily occupancy rates, economic downturns have impacted other metros negatively.
To that point, the five markets where occupancy has fallen the most are scattered across the nation, according to new data from Yardi Matrix.
Nationally, rents have risen as much as 9%, Yardi Matrix said last month.
While the No. 4 Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania market saw a steady occupancy growth from July to August this year, the other four markets saw a significant drop.
The one trend seen in all five of these markets is a constant decrease in occupancy.
No. 1 Midland-Odessa, Texas has seen the most dramatic drop in occupancy from July to August, at 120 basis points.
Despite seeing a growth in its employment rates, No. 2 North Central Florida’s occupancy rates went down 100 basis points, year over year through August.
With a strong employment market, No. 3 Chattanooga, Tennessee has gained multiple large companies, like Volkswagen and Google. This led to a rise in rental rates, while also decreasing its occupancy rates by 100 basis points.
The amount of workers at General Motors in No. 5, Youngstown, Ohio, has gone down, creating an unemployment rate reaching 6.1% this summer. That led to the occupancy rates dropping 80 basis points.
