As of 3rd quarter 2023, Lincoln, NE claimed the second-highest occupancy in the nation among the top 150 apartment markets, behind only Youngstown, OH. Strong occupancy near 98% comes even as apartment supply has been climbing. In the year-ending 3rd quarter 2023, Lincoln added 835 units, a two-year high that will be dwarfed by the more than 1,200 units forecasted to be delivered in the coming year, according to RealPage Market Analytics. Annual net inventory grew by about 2.5% in the last year, just a bit above the national average of 2.1%. The coming year’s construction pipeline will grow Lincoln’s existing inventory by 3.8%. Lincoln, which has a total population of about 338,000 residents and an existing apartment unit count of about 34,000 market-rate units, has a higher concentration than the national norm of adults aged 20 to 34 – a prime cohort for apartment residents. Annual employment here grew less than 2% in the last year, and just rebounded back to the pre-pandemic employment rate from February 2020 in September 2023.
