The first quarter's top three markets for job gains — New York, Dallas, and Houston — also lead the nation in apartment demand. However, beyond these leading cities, the connection between job growth and apartment demand becomes less pronounced, according to RealPage senior real estate economist Chuck Ehmann’s Bureau of Labor Statistics data analysis.
In fact, among the top ten markets for job growth, only Washington, D.C., also ranks in the top ten for apartment demand further down the list.
This weakening link between rising employment and apartment demand may be attributed to the rise of remote and hybrid work, which grants workers more flexibility in their lives. As a result, traditional patterns tying employment gains to local apartment demand have shifted, particularly outside the largest metropolitan areas.
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Ehmann noted that although the correlation has weakened in the past several years, there remains at least some connection between work creation and housing demand. All of the top 10 regions for new jobs during the first quarter are within RealPage’s top 20 markets for annual apartment absorption.
The first quarter's top metro areas for annual job creation were New York, Dallas, Houston, Orlando, Washington, D.C., Charlotte, Philadelphia, Miami, San Antonio, and Raleigh. New York and Houston saw decreases in annual employment gains in March compared with February, but Dallas, on the other hand, saw an increase of almost 5,000, according to RealPage.
Orlando retained its No. 4 spot, gaining 30,100 jobs for the year, which was on par with its February performance. Washington, D.C., moved from No. 9 to No. 5 in March with 1,800 new jobs. Charlotte moved up one spot to sixth place with similar increases in employment.
Philadelphia and Miami had similar total job gains from last month, landing them in seventh and eighth, respectively. San Antonio and Raleigh/Durham rounded out the top 10 with employment additions of about 20,300 each. Chicago fell from the top 10 to the fifteenth spot on the list in March.
Combined, the top 10 markets added 322,100 jobs for the year ending in March. That was about 111,000 less than the same 10 markets added in March 2024, a 25.7% decrease. Markets 11-20 experienced a 30.1% decrease in employment, with just 159,600 jobs added.
No metros exceeded 100,000 jobs for the year and only New York added more than 50,000, said the report. Thirty-one of the top 150 markets on RealPage’s list reported annual job losses for the year.
State capitals, college towns, and resort cities continue to dominate the list of markets with the largest percentage of employment gains. Gainesville, Florida, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina, were the top three markets in this category.
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Kristen Smithberg
Kristen Smithberg is a Colorado-based freelance writer who covers commercial real estate, insurance, benefits and retirement topics for BenefitsPRO and other industry publications.
