Austin, San Jose Lead in Rebounding Multifamily Fundamentals

Austin and San Jose top Apartments.com and CoStar’s latest U.S. Multifamily Momentum Index amid a period of diminishing supply pressures and stabilizing demand. The index highlights where conditions are gaining ground the fastest, based on year-over-year improvement in several measures, including rent growth, vacancy, the balance between demand and new supply, and changes in the under-construction pipeline relative to inventory.

Other Northern California markets as well as Sunbelt cities figure high in the rankings. CoStar Group notes that recovery in multifamily has been uneven since the second quarter of 2025, with four of the top 10 markets in this year’s ranking reporting annual rent declines. Among the highest-ranked markets, Austin’s multifamily rents remain down, but the pace of the declines has slowed while vacancy rates are dropping.

“Momentum varies by region, reflecting each market’s position in the current supply-demand cycle,” said Grant Montgomery, national director of U.S. multifamily analytics at CoStar Group. “In some areas, a rebound in demand is restoring pricing power, while in others, a slowdown in construction is allowing fundamentals to stabilize while rents remain down year over year. In still others, long-standing supply constraints are limiting the degree of change.”