After Nearly Two Years, Apartment Demand Finally Returns to Akron

After seven consecutive quarters of net move-outs, Akron’s apartment market finally recorded apartment demand for 292 units in 4th quarter 2023, according to data from RealPage Market Analytics. Among the nation’s 150 largest apartment markets, Akron was the only one to record net move-outs in seven of the previous eight quarters, marking – at least by this calculation – the most consistently poor demand performance nationwide. (Plenty of other markets recorded deeper net move-outs from more units, however.) Only 10 other markets nationwide recorded net move-outs in six of the last eight quarters, including California markets Riverside, Fresno, Santa Maria-Santa Barbara and Vallejo/Fairfield/Napa, Michigan markets Flint and Kalamazoo/Battle Creek, and also Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL, Providence-Warwick, RI-MA and Albuquerque, NM. Conversely, only six markets (among the top 150) survived 2022 and 2023 without a single quarter of negative demand.