The US Urban vs Suburban Apartment Housing Market, What’s Changing?
Now fully into 2026, the housing market’s promised upturn is finally taking shape. As always, though, the growth is uneven throughout geographical locations with some markets faring better than others. A distinct emerging pattern is that of the urban vs suburban market. To break it down even further, our experts have further dissected this slice of the multifamily pie, the urban and suburban apartment housing market. Even for industry veterans in multifamily housing, there could be surprises in store.
An Overview of the Housing Market US
A high-level view of all housing trends in the US show us that the suburbs are growing and urban population is decreasing somewhat. The United States Census Bureau 2025 statistics are in (it’s a slow process). The bureau reports that since 2020, growth in cities has been slow, bucking a pattern of relocating to cities that has been in place, more or less, since the Industrial Revolution. The cause of the move away from cities was obvious – the pandemic. This pattern remains, although instead of the mass exodus from that time period, there remains simply a slow trickle of people moving from the cities to the suburbs, and further. A new term has come into use, the “exurbs”. This refers to the area beyond the suburbs that is semi-rural, but still separate from what is considered the rural boundary.
Multifamily View: Renter Migration by State
In May, Apartments.com published their statistics on renter migration. The first takeaway here is that many renters are preferring to stay where they are if they can (79%). Perhaps the uncertainty of the world situation or inflation are causing this, but regardless, this action (or more precisely, inaction) has made an impact on multifamily housing. Those renters who are choosing to move seem to be moving to areas that are more affordable. We see this at the state level, with states with a higher cost of living such as California and New York losing more renters than states with a lower cost of living like Texas and Florida.
Here’s What’s Changing in the Move Away from Cities
The website, Apartment List, aggregated the data from all searches on their site to come to the same conclusion as the U.S. Census Bureau. Namely, renters in this country are moving to more affordable areas. Their data also showed us that this is happening both on the state level and on the urban vs suburban level. Driven by a concern for affordability more than anything else, renters are trading higher rents in urban areas for lower rents in suburban ones. Some are even going further than the suburbs, nearly reaching the rural areas. Thus the need for the new category we mentioned earlier came about, the “exurbs”. Because the further one travels from the city generally corresponds to a decrease in rent pricing, multifamily housing developments in the suburbs and beyond are experiencing a surge. For many builders, investors, and others in the industry, suburban developments and exurban developments are areas where there’s money to be made.
Wrapping it All Up
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We’ll Save You Money and Time
There are many ways to the same destination. This saying applies to multifamily housing builds just as much as to anything else in life. The ultimate goal is save as much money as possible while delivering a great finished project – that’s simply showing smart business sense. But, finding a one-off deal or sacrificing quality isn’t the only way to get a healthy ROI. We have a better way.
Pioneer works with professionals every day to develop specification packages and plans that save our valued partners both time and money, sometimes in surprising ways. It’s our goal to ensure your project meets or exceeds its expected outcome. We want to get to know you and your company and show you how we can save you money. Please reach out via our website form or call us at (800) 338-9468.
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