THE TOP 20 CITIES IN THE U.S. FOR REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT OVER THE LAST DECADE

thE U.s. rEAl EstAtE landscape has undergone a significant makeover during the past decade, with virtually all real estate sectors experiencing massive expansions. But, naturally, due to specific market conditions and demographics, the pace of development differs a great deal from one region to another.

To see which areas experienced the most sizable inventory growth across the major real estate sectors, Storage Cafe conducted an in-depth analysis of new construction over the last ten years (2013 – 2022) in the 100 largest US cities. Our report considers permits for new construction of single family and multifamily homes and new deliveries in the office, retail, industrial and self-storage sectors.

The rapid and ongoing growth in the Sun Belt cities has been an extraordinary boon to real estate development. Fifteen out of the top twenty best-performing cities in terms of real estate development are in the Sun Belt, with Texas’s sought-after hubs in the lead. In fact, Texas is now in a league of its own and boasts the top five best cities for real estate construction. Some other interesting takeaways related to each of the 6 sectors:

REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT BY THE NUMBERS:

• Single family homes: Almost all 20 cities having built the most single-family homes are located in the Sun Belt. These are popular relocation destinations which registered massive in-migration in the past decade. At the other end of the spectrum, Newark, NJ, saw the lowest amount of homebuilding in the past decade along with Toledo, OH, and Worcester, MA.

• Multifamily: New York City, NY, tops the charts for multifamily permits issued over the past decade (over 238K). Rounding out the top five cities are Los Angeles, CA, Austin, TX, Houston, TX, and Seattle, WA.

• Office sector: NYC remains the top office real estate market in the US, having built the most office space square footage in the nation over the past decade (over 73M square feet). It is followed at a long distance by Houston, TX, Austin, TX, Seattle, WA, and Chicago, IL.

• Retail: Urban areas with high population densities were the most active retail markets, with New York City, NY, Houston, TX and San Antonio, TX at the top.

• Industrial: The top 5 largest and most active distribution markets are in the South and Southwest – Houston, TX Dallas, TX, Fort Worth, TX, Phoenix, AZ, and Las Vegas, NV.

• Self-storage added 25% of its total stock between 2013 and 2022, more than any other commercial segment.

See the entire report <HERE> n homE PricEs hAvE skyrockEtEd over the last few years during COVID-19, with the median sales price going from $313,000 in Q1 2019 to $436,800 in Q1 2023, Prices seem to be getting lower in some parts of the country this year; however, interest rates have climbed rapidly. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate shot up from a historic low of 2.65% in January of 2021 to 6.39% in May of this year.

The personal-finance website WalletHub released a report on 2023’s Most Affordable Cities for Home Buyers, They compared 300 U.S. cities across ten key metrics including the costs of homes and their maintenance to tax rates and vacancy rates. Some of the important takeaways:

• Springfield, Illinois, has the most affordable housing (median house price divided by median annual household income), 1.67, which is 17.5 times cheaper than in Santa Barbara, California, the city with the least affordable housing, with a ratio of 29.24.