Austin’s ranking as one of the nation’s fastest growing apartment markets looks to continue in the near term, as this market has seen multifamily permit approvals spike in 2020. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, over 16,800 units were approved in the Texas capital in the year-ending May. These are some of the biggest apartment approval numbers in Austin in at least two decades. In the past ten years, the average annual multifamily permit volume for this market was about 9,600 units approved annually, but in the past five years, that number has increased to nearly 11,500 units. Across the nation, only 10 apartment markets recorded permits for more than 10,000 units in the past year. Among those, Austin posted one of the biggest year-over-year increases, with permits in 2020 growing a sizable 44.9% over 2019 volumes.
