June 14, 2022

St. Louis Q1 Multifamily Market Insights: With vacancy tightening, development gains momentum

Highlights:

Operating conditions continued to improve among multifamily properties at the start of the year with vacancies declining and rents rising. After slowing the pace of new construction in 2021, multifamily developers were active to start 2022, with deliveries and permitting accelerating.
The vacancy rate improved by 30 basis points in the first quarter, reaching 4 percent. Year over year, vacancy dropped by 150 basis points.
The rate of rent growth jumped in the first quarter, rising 4.1 percent in the first three months of the year to $1,101 per month. The recent spike has accounted for nearly half of the total increase in the past year. Rents have pushed 8.4 percent higher in the 12-month period ending in the first quarter.
The multifamily investment market gained momentum to start 2022 with more properties changing hands than in recent periods. The median sales price rose to $101,900 per unit, a 9 percent increase from 2021 levels. Recent cap rates averaged approximately 4.5 percent.