by Continued development of properties with 5 or more units calls for smaller-scale furniture
WASHINGTON — When reporting about housing growth, the headlines generally focus on single-family home development and sales, which makes sense given the importance of housing to furniture sales.
What’s sometimes ignored is the development/growth of properties involving five or more units, some 90% of which are estimated to be rental properties/apartments.
While such housing is occupied by all age groups, younger consumers including the 18-to-29-year-old Gen Z population covered in this season’s edition of Consumer Insights Now, is a huge market for rentals as they are still saving to buy a home. According to our research, 55% surveyed in this age group say they can’t afford a house, although four out of 10 renters surveyed plan to buy a home in the next three to five years.
For the time being, many prefer renting and not just because rents are typically lower than a mortgage. Many in this demographic simply don’t want the responsibility of owning a home — ranging from yard work and home repairs to paying homeowners insurance and real estate taxes — even though taxes, insurance and maintenance are largely covered in the monthly rent.
Thus, there’s been a significant development of properties with five or more units in the past 10 years, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. For example, last year alone, there were 467,700 units completed in multifamily housing, including apartments and other rental properties, a 50.6% increase from 310,500 units in 2015. By comparison, the construction boom for apartments peaked at more than 600,000 units in 2014, according to rental unit database Apartment List.
The government’s database shows multifamily growth has slowed this year, with 274,500 units completed year to date through August compared with 325,300 the same period in 2025, a 15.6% decline.
Regardless, there are still plenty of units available, both new and existing, which need to be furnished when new residents move in.
And given that these units are typically smaller than a typical starter home (an apartment averages under 1,000 square feet compared with a starter home that averages 1,250 square feet), they often need smaller-scale furniture including bedroom and dining furniture not to mention upholstery.
Apartment List published its National Rent Report in late August, which offers the following key takeaways:
+ The national median rent was $1,380 as of August. Citing Redfin data, Rocket Mortgage said this compares with a median mortgage rate of $2,623 based on a home sales price of $398,854 as of late May and a mortgage rate of 6.53%. The average U.S. monthly mortgage payment as of August 2025 was $2,030 for a home with an average purchase price of $394,051 and a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate of 6.68%.
+ The national median monthly rent of $1,380 also was down $11 from August 2025. The report said rents peaked in mid-2022, following “a year and a half of skyrocketing growth. Since then the nationwide median rent has been gradually drifting down and has fallen from that peak by a total of 3.6% or $52 per month.”
+ The national median rent rose by .1% in August, which was the seventh consecutive monthly increase, according to Apartment List. However, rents were down .8% compared with August 2025. “In this full-year view, the off-season pricing dip is still outweighing the busy season rent increases, despite some strengthening in rent growth in recent months,” the Apartment List report noted. “In other words, rents are still falling, but not as fast as they used to be.
+ It takes about 32 days for a rental unit to get leased after first being listed on the market. This compares to the median time of 31 days on the market for existing homes, unchanged from August 2025 and up from 29 days in June, according to the National Association of Realtors.
+ The national multifamily vacancy rate declined to 7.1% in August, the first decline since late 2021, according to Apartment List.
“A historic surge in multifamily construction has been driving soft market conditions for nearly four years,” the report said, noting that the peak of more than 600,000 new multifamily units hitting the market in 2014 was the most new supply in a year since 1986.”
“Deliveries of new apartments have slowed considerably since then, albeit while remaining fairly robust by historic standards. Despite being at the tail end of the construction boom, the market had still been struggling to absorb the swell of new inventory. That is now finally changing, as we see multifamily occupancy also hitting an inflection point in tandem with rent growth.”
The report also notes the U.S. metro areas with the highest year-over-year rent increase and the highest rent decreases.
The highest increases:
+ San Francisco – 11%
+ San Jose, Calif. – 7.9%
+ Virginia Beach, Va. – 6.7%
+ Milwaukee – 3.3%
+ Chicago – 3.1%
+ Honolulu – 3.1%
+ Detroit – 2.6%
+ Kansas City, Mo. – 2.4%
+ Hartford, Conn. – 2.1%
+ Tulsa, Okla. – 2.1%
The highest decreases
+ Denver – 3.4%
+ Phoenix – 2.9%
+ Austin, Texas – 2.9%
+ Tampa, Fla. – 2.5%
+ Charlotte, N.C. – 2.5%
+ Dallas – 2.3%
+ Salt Lake City – 2.2%
+ Houston – 2.2%
How this data impacts young renters in these and other markets depends on their unique financial situation. Regardless, they will still need furniture and thus represent an important part of the buying public. For more insights on this group of consumers and what’s motiving them to spend on furniture, click here.
