Top 25 Markets for Apartment Rent Growth

While Portland took the top spot with annual rent growth of 12.0%, seven of the top 25 MSAs for apartment rent growth in 2015 were in California.
Those Golden State markets include Oakland (11.3%); Sacramento (9.3%); San Diego (7.7%); San Francisco (7.6%); San Jose (7.1%); Riverside (7.1%); and Los Angeles (6.4%). The full list of top cities for annual effective rent growth as of 4Q 2015 comes via Axiometrics.
As you can see below, there was strong representation from East Coast multifamily markets as well.
Keep in mind that these are the top 25 best performing markets in the 50 markets with the most apartment units. Only one of those 50 markets — Oklahoma City — showed negative rent growth for the year (-0.6%).
When cities like Portland, Ore., and Oakland, Calif. are posting double digit annual rent growth, it won’t surprise you that the first three quarters of the year were “the most robust period we have seen since before the Great Recession,” according to Jay Denton, senior vice president of analytics at Axiometrics.
Quarter-over-quarter rents actually shrunk -0.6% for 4Q 2015, which Axiometrics says is typical, due to seasonality.