The small Port St. Lucie/Sebastian/Vero Beach apartment market is one of the nation’s rent growth leaders. Effective asking rent growth hit 23.5% in the year-ending April, according to data from RealPage Market Analytics. This was well ahead of the market’s typical rent growth rate and was a top-10 national performance alongside eight other Florida markets and New York. Occupancy in Port St. Lucie/Sebastian/Vero Beach was also strong at 97.1% in April, though that rate is down a bit from the showing of 97.5% seen just a year ago. Located along Florida’s Atlantic Coast, this apartment market has benefited from population shifts during the pandemic, when a wave of at-home workers gravitated toward small, affordable beach towns. Possibly suppressing occupancy and rent growth in the near term, Port St. Lucie/Sebastian/Vero Beach is scheduled to see one of the nation’s biggest inventory increases in 2022 . Over 1,400 units are expected to complete here by the end of 2022, increasing existing inventory 5.3%.
