U.S. annual rent change has ranged between about 2.5% and 5.5% over the last five years. But in Midland/Odessa, performance has swung between -29.7% and 43.2%. The boom-and-bust Permian Basin market ebbs and flows with the surrounding oil fields. As of November, annual rent change in Midland/Odessa hit -7%, the worst rent performance the market has seen since January 2017. Not surprisingly, it’s also the worst performance among the top 150 U.S. apartment markets in November. Since November 2018, rent change has plunged 2,830 basis points. In the market’s most recent boom, which lasted from mid-2017 to mid-2019, a peak of 42.3% annual rent growth was recorded in December 2017. Meanwhile, occupancy has been nearly as volatile and has been falling every month since May 2019. In November, occupancy stood at 92.7%.
