A Renter’s Respite: In Washington Area, Thousands of New Units to Open Soon
The weary apartment hunters of Washington, who have been plagued in recent years by rising rents, fewer vacancies, pickier landlords and periodic bidding wars, are about to get a welcome respite.
Thousands of new rental units under construction are scheduled to open in the coming months, the first such wave of new building in the area since the financial crisis hit in 2008.
The coming surge — which includes a whopping 6,000 new units by the end of this year — will give prospective renters a slew of new options and could even halt the upward march of monthly rental payments, according to developers, analysts and real estate professionals.
“There’s going to be a paradigm shift,” said Rick Gersten, chief executive of Urban Igloo, a company that helps connect renters with local landlords. “People are going to have more choices. It’s going to be more difficult to retain tenants.”
During the economic downturn, developers drastically scaled back production of multi-family projects. But construction came roaring back last year, with developers breaking ground on nearly 15,000 apartment units from Landover to Northeast Washington to Manassas — the most in nearly two decades, said Greg Leisch, chief executive of the Alexandria-based research firm Delta Associates.