Area's employment growth boosts apartment leasing
08:33 AM CDT on Friday, April 7, 2006
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
Backed by a rebound in employment growth, Dallas-Fort Worth apartment landlords had a surge in rentals in the first quarter.
Net leasing totaled more than 5,600 units for the first three months of 2006. That's a 66 percent jump in demand from the same period of 2005, according to M/PF YieldStar Inc.
"The dramatically revised job numbers go a long way in explaining why demand has been so robust," said Greg Willett, vice president of the Dallas research firm.
North Texas gained more than 66,000 jobs last year -- one of the biggest increases in the country.
Net leasing rose in all sections of D-FW except in some neighborhoods where older apartment units were being knocked down to make way for new construction.
The bump in leasing caused overall occupancy to rise to just under 93 percent at the end of March. North Texas apartment rents were up by less than 1 percent to an average $697 a month.
"The big trend to watch for is much more aggressive rent growth as we move into the spring and summer months, the region's seasonal peak in leasing activity," Mr. Willett said.
Rents should rise because apartment construction continues to lag demand.
Only about 1,500 units were added to the market in the first quarter. An additional 10,245 were under construction. The biggest concentrations of construction are in Lewisville (1,426 units), intown Dallas (1,337 units) and North Fort Worth (1,125 units).
The strong first-quarter apartment leasing follows a boom in 2005, when more than 22,000 units were rented. E-mail stevebrown@dallasnews.com