New Construction & Absorption Down; Asking Rent & Vacancy Up

Preliminary Q3 2018 apartment data from Reis noted the following national year-over-year trends:

Vacancy rate increased by .4%, while asking rent was up by 4.5%
Net absorption fell by 11,492 units
New construction was also down by 15,814

However, the report, itself, was optimistic, pointing out that healthy job growth continues fueling apartment demand. “No metro shows a loss of jobs over the year,” Reis analysts said. As job growth holds steady, the analysts anticipated that, as long as job growth is steady, rent growth should remain positive, though new supply is likely to continue outpacing demand growth in the latter part of 2018 and early 2019.