No Overbuilding Here
You can put away that worry stone until 2017, says JLL multifamily guru Jeff Price--Houston’s multifamily supply looks healthy until then. Jeff (third from the right with his team) tells us Houston is among 14 cities—including DFW and San Antonio—projected to have strong supply/demand ratio over the next three years. He says apartment absorption for Texas’ four major markets will exceed all that has been or will be built between now and 2017.
Houston, Dallas, and Austin are among the top five MSAs for new development nationwide, as is job growth in those markets. Houston’s construction pipeline is pretty huge, but we’re exceeding the national average for occupancy (around 95% at year-end). Occupancy stayed strong here because of the oil and gas business, in particular. (And, that industry’s strength isn’t waning, Jeff says. The Daytona 500 should tell you that.) On a year-over-year basis, Houston was among the top five cities in annual rental growth, averaging between 4.5% and 7%. On Jeff’s horizon: a new grandbaby in Austin and his youngest kiddo is getting married in June.
