It’s hard to find rental apartments in Albuquerque and the surrounding areas. More than half of current renters tend to renew their leases – and Albuquerque has the hottest small rental market in the West to start the year.
That’s according to RentCafe, a nationwide apartment search website that releases frequent rankings on rental markets across the country. Roughly 95% of rental apartments are occupied in the Albuquerque area – which also includes Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, Los Alamos and their surrounding suburbs – according to RentCafe’s report.
Danielle Casey, the president and CEO of Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance, said the Albuquerque area is a market that has favorable qualities.
“We are a highly attractive market for quality of life, cost of living and job opportunities,” Casey said. “But like many markets across the country our development and construction of new housing stock has not been able to keep up with this demand for a variety of reasons.”
While the vacancy rate for rentals remains low, according to the RentCafe report, so too is the lack of new supply coming online. In the report, RentCafe says: “To add fuel to the fire, almost no new apartments entered the market recently, turning apartment hunting into a needle in the haystack challenge.”
Casey said many existing employers – including the national laboratories, Intel, Facebook and Amazon, among others – “are also asking about future workforce housing for employees.”
RentCafe’s report says the Albuquerque area tends to see eight prospective renters compete for the same vacant unit, adding that it’s “so busy that apartments get filled in… (35 days).” The organization says that is three days faster than the national benchmark of 38 days.
Additionally, RentCafe’s report shows that its Rental Competitivity Index, or RCI, stands at 80.95. That is higher than the national RCI score of 60, and the Albquerque area RCI makes it the hottest small rental market in the West.
Nationally, the Albuquerque area rental market is the 24th hottest in the small market category.
“A variety of options are needed across the entire region, especially in Downtown,” Casey said, adding that “focus and investment on regional transportation corridors like Atrisco Vista and Paseo Del Volcan will be transformative in the long term.”
