ALN: DFW, Houston account for 72 percent of 2017 Texas’ apartment absorption

​​​​CARROLLTON – Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston accounted for 72 percent of multifamily units absorbed in Texas last year, according to ALN Apartment Data’s 2017 market report.

DFW maintained a flat occupancy of just under 91 percent for the year even as over 15,000 new units were introduced.​

Despite the destruction caused by Hurricane Harvey, Houston added over 10,000 units last year. The forced relocation of residents because of hurricane-related damage contributed to the absorption of over 20,000 units for the year. Occupancy rose more than 2 percent to 89.6 percent.

"In fact, more than 13,000 units were taken offline due to Hurricane Harvey in the Houston market," ALN’s report said, "by far the most of any natural-disaster-affected areas of the country since the New Orleans area was devastated by Katrina in 2005. As a comparison, the entire state of Florida lost fewer than 1,000 units due to Hurricane Rita."

Austin and San Antonio absorbed about 6,000 and 4,500 units, respectively. Average occupancy ended the year right around 90 percent for both.

Absorption was down in many of the secondary and tertiary markets like Amarillo, Lubbock, Lufkin, and Wichita Falls. Occupancy declined in many of the smaller markets by 3 to 6 percent.

"The fourth quarter was particularly problematic for markets like Amarillo, Beaumont, and Texarkana, each suffering significant occupancy losses in the final quarter," the report said. "Even with the delivery of over 7,000 new Class A units in Austin for the year, average effective rent per unit declined by 0.6 percent, a result of a Q4 decline of 1.5 percent. Average effective rent rose in DFW by about 4.5 percent, 5 percent in Houston, and 3 percent in San Antonio for the year."