Minneapolis-St. Paul: Apartmentville USA
By John Egan
January 10, 2017
Sorry, Big Apple. You’re not Apartmentville USA, even though everyone in Manhattan seems to live in an apartment.
Instead, our Apartmentville USA title goes to Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. A LawnStarter review of newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that among the country’s 50 most populous metro areas, the Twin Cities region is the capital of apartment-complex dwellers.
How did we arrive at that determination? We looked at the percentage of all renter-occupied units that are in buildings with at least 10 apartments, and Minneapolis-St. Paul rose to the top. In the Twin Cities, the figure was 55.6 percent -- a couple of notches above New York, NY, at 53.2 percent.
Seventh Place Apartments is among the numerous apartment buildings in St. Paul, MN.
Photo: Kelly Brothers Investments
In its 2016 forecast for the Twin Cities apartment market, commercial real estate firm NAI Everest reported that nearly 438,000 area residents -- or 11 percent of the region’s population in 2015 -- lived in apartments in buildings of all sizes.
In the second quarter of 2016, NAI Everest said the Twin Cities area was outperforming most apartment markets in the U.S., with an average vacancy rate of just 2.7 percent. NAI Everest says the influx of millennials into the Twin Cities is helping extend the region’s more than five-year streak of low apartment vacancy rates.
According to NAI Everest, Twin Cities apartment owners report that one-fourth of their units are being rented to millennials relocating to the area for work. Personal finance website NerdWallet says 22 percent of the people who live in the city of Minneapolis are 20 to 29 years old, compared with 17.2 percent in the country’s 100 largest cities.
Here are the top 10 metros in our Apartmentville USA ranking, accompanied by the each metro’s percentage of apartment-complex dwellers among all apartment renters:
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN: 55.6%
- New York, NY: 53.2%
- Washington, DC: 53.1%
- Denver, CO: 49.4%
- Houston, TX: 47.7%
- Austin, TX: 46.4%
- Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL: 44.9%
- Seattle, WA: 43.4%
- Los Angeles, CA: 42.4%
- San Jose, CA: 41.4%
Our ranking is based on estimates from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2011-15. The bureau published the data in December 2016. In the graphic below, check out the apartment-dwelling stats for the top 50 metro areas in the U.S.
Top Photo: Walk Score
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