Greenville/Spartanburg Rent Growth Accelerates Ahead of U.S. Norm

While a lot of small apartment markets have seen occupancy and rents boosted by limited construction recently, Greenville/Spartanburg, SC has enjoyed a solid performance even with considerable new supply. After rent cuts got as deep as 1.3% during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, rent growth returned to Greenville/Spartanburg with a bang more recently, accelerating past the U.S. average. Annual effective asking rents surged by 11.8% as of July, the highest rent growth rate recorded in Greenville/Spartanburg since RealPage began tracking the market over a decade ago. This recent performance is also notably ahead of the national average of 8.3%, which itself is a record high. Helping motivate rent growth, solid demand for more than 2,900 units in 2nd quarter inspired an occupancy climb of 210 basis points year-over-year to 96.8% in July, which was a decade high for the market. Noteworthy performance in rent growth and occupancy comes despite considerable construction activity in Greenville/Spartanburg. New construction activity pushed the existing unit base up 3.2% annually, well over historical norms for this market.