Southern metros drive multifamily growth in 2025

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Southern metros remain a focal point for multifamily growth, supported by migration trends, job creation, and relative affordability.

The U.S. apartment construction market is regaining strength in 2025, with an estimated 506,353 new units expected to be delivered nationwide by year-end, according to a new report from RentCafe. Apartment construction remains significantly above the annual averages recorded since 2015, while lower than the record-breaking totals of 2024, highlighting ongoing demand for rental housing.

The South is expected to account for more than half (52.5 percent) of all new apartment deliveries this year, totaling 265,613 units. Developers are responding to the region’s strong demographic and economic trends and status as a migration magnet, said RentCafe.

Doug Ressler, senior analyst and manager of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix, parent company of RentCafe, notes that Southern metros typically offer streamlined approval processes and fewer regulatory hurdles, while elevated home prices and a shortage of attainable for-sale housing are pushing more residents toward rentals. 

Texas continues to lead this Southern building boom. Dallas led the nation in multifamily permitting in July 2025, issuing 17,684 units, a 4,566-unit increase over the same month last year, according to RealPage, based on Census Bureau data. Dallas has seen annual permitting growth every month since November 2024, and is likely to head the next supply wave, reflecting continued demand despite slowing employment growth.

The Metroplex remains one of the nation’s top markets for new construction, RentCafe notes. The Dallas–Fort Worth metro area is projected to deliver 28,958 new apartments in 2025. Austin is expected to add 26,715 units and Houston 14,439 units. Meanwhile, Dallas city proper is on track to deliver 5,778 units this year, followed by Fort Worth with 3,793 units and McKinney with 2,006 units.

Other Southern metros are also expanding. Orlando saw permitting jump 44 percent year-over-year, while Miami and Houston posted increases of ten percent and 28 percent, respectively. Atlanta, Charlotte, and Phoenix are also contributing thousands of new units, drawing both developers and residents from higher-cost coastal regions, said RealPage. Smaller Sunbelt markets such as Naples, FL, and Birmingham, AL, have experienced dramatic year-over-year gains, nearly quadrupling and tripling their apartment completions compared to 2024, according to RentCafe.

The New York metro area leads the nation for the fourth consecutive year, with 30,023 new apartments set to open in 2025, down 8.4 percent from the previous year. The gap between New York and Dallas was just a few units in 2024, but has widened to 1,065 apartments this year. Nearly half of the new apartments in the New York metro (14,481 units) are concentrated in three NYC boroughs, with Brooklyn leading at 7,189 units, followed by Manhattan with 4,662 units and Queens with 2,630 units.

While gateway markets like New York continue to see significant deliveries, RentCafe data show that the South is now the dominant growth engine reshaping the multifamily landscape. Even with New York maintaining its lead among metros in total new apartments, the rapid expansion of Southern metros ensures that the South will be the primary driver of apartment development in 2025. 

RentCafe’s report is available here.