Jackson Ranks Among Nation’s Top 10 for Rent Growth

Apartment rent growth in Jackson, MS remains elevated despite weak occupancy. In fact, Jackson is only one of three markets nationwide where occupancy is below 94% and rent growth is above 5%. The other two are the boom-bust markets of College Station and Midland/Odessa. As of July 2023, Jackson recorded occupancy of 93.1%, down 160 basis points year-over-year, according to data from RealPage Market Analytics. The market’s recent occupancy rate measured below the pre-pandemic average of 94.2% from 2015 to 2019 and well below the record peak of 96.6% in September 2020. Meanwhile, effective asking rents in the year-ending July 2023 were up 6%, ranking #9 among the nation’s core 150 markets. While that rent increase was down from the 10% annual growth recorded a little over a year ago, it was well above the pre-pandemic average of 2.1%. Jackson is the capital city of Mississippi and the most populated metropolitan area in the state with roughly 580,000 residents. The population has been declining in recent years, shrinking 1.3% from 2020 to 2022. The market is defined by a typically slow growing economy, but recent job growth has been healthy, fueled by hiring in the Education/Health Services and Trade/Transportation/Utilities sectors. This small South region market with about 33,000 existing apartment units has seen little new supply over the past decade. During that period, its existing unit base grew just 0.5% annually, or an average of less than 160 units a year.