According to a new study by storage space marketplace StorageCafe, four of the top five most active downtown areas for new apartment construction are in the South, with Atlanta, Georgia ranking first for built downtown apartments over the past ten years. The city yielded over 21,500 apartments over this period. 

For this study, StorageCafe assessed the downtown areas of the country’s 100 largest cities and ranked them based on the quantity of multifamily units produced over the last decade. Approximately 391,000 downtown apartments were built across these 100 cities during this time, which is 37% of the total number of multifamily units in these areas. Self-storage development has also risen as a result of this growth in downtown apartments, with Atlanta leading in self-storage space construction over the last ten years as well.

Over the past decade, Atlanta’s downtown apartment inventory increased by 50%. The city is expecting another 7,000 apartments, which are currently under construction. According to the study, Atlanta's growth can be attributed to the city reinventing itself as “the business center of the Southeast,” with a projected 1.9 million jobs to be added by 2040. These jobs would be in higher-paying sectors, such as life sciences, engineering, and corporate management, which would draw a population of young professionals that prefer downtown living. 

Behind Atlanta is Los Angeles, which saw over 19,000 new downtown apartments built over the last ten years. 900 units have been completed so far in 2022, with another 4,700 units set to rise in the next couple of years. Los Angeles is followed by Houston, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Miami, Florida as the top five cities on the list.

In addition, Nashville, Tennessee; St. Petersburg, Florida; and Phoenix, Arizona saw the largest shares of new downtown apartment development. In each of these cities, housing in 50-plus unit buildings built between 2013 and 2021 represents more than 70% of the large-scale apartment inventory. Specifically, in Nashville, the 11,144 apartments added over the last ten years are nearly 80% of the area’s total apartment inventory.