At the end of 2023, U.S. apartment occupancy hit a 10-year low, according to a report from RealPage Market Analytics. This, in part, is due to an increase in apartment supply not seen since the 1980s.

Apartment occupancy and rents saw a significant increase at the end of 2021 into the first few months of 2022, following the height of the pandemic. As a result, eager developers applied for permits for additional construction projects, resulting in sizable new supply volumes in the apartment market.

But as that new construction was being delivered, the apartment rental market changed. In December 2023, the occupancy rate in the nation was 94.1%, which is the lowest recorded since January 2014. December 2023 occupancy registered more than 100 basis points (bps) behind the nation's decade average of 95.4%.