While U.S. apartment occupancy is still down from the historic highs of last year, the market has seen some improvement recently. After a record year for apartment demand in 2019, U.S. occupancy peaked at 96.3% last August. A year later, in the middle of a global pandemic and national recession, occupancy has dipped to a still-respectable 95.7% in August 2020. Occupancy has been trending back up since bottoming out at 95.2% in May and June. After the initial fallout from the pandemic in April, demand rebounded with robust new lease signings and renewals. Year over year, occupancy is still down 60 basis points (bps), but that’s an improvement from the 100-bps decline seen just two months earlier.
