New York’s Small Apartment Markets Prove Resilient

It’s easy to lose sight of New York state’s smaller markets in light of the more prominent New York City, which accounts for 10% of the entire nation’s apartment stock. Still, the state is home to several small markets with remarkable resilience in the face of increased vacancies across the U.S. As of November, Albany, Buffalo, Nassau County, Rochester and Syracuse all remain easily above the essentially full mark with occupancy ranging from 95.8% to 97.2%, in line with or above the Northeast region average (95.9%) and the U.S. norm (94.2%). The strongest performer was Rochester (97.2%), according to RealPage Market Analytics. The state’s relative underperformer, Albany, trailed with occupancy at a still solid 95.8%. Occupancy contracted across four of the five markets month-over-month and year-over-year. On an annual basis, occupancy in Buffalo backtracked the most severely, down 120 basis points. In Nassau County, alternatively, occupancy tightened 40 bps in November, ranking #5 among of the RealPage 150 and one of only 34 markets to strengthen occupancy month-over-month. On an annual basis, Rochester proved to be a winner as occupancy tightened 40 basis points, another top five performance and one of only 10 markets of the RealPage 150 to record growth. Each market recorded strong occupancy performance despite inventory expanding anywhere from 0.3% to 1.3% in the year-ending 3rd quarter 2023. At the same time, all five of these markets recorded net move-outs on an annual basis, with the worst performance in Buffalo (-720 units). Albany recorded the strongest performance among the group, though still negative, with net move-outs from 195 units.