In a World of Shrinking Apartments, DC Rentals Get Bigger

• June 13th 2024

by UrbanTurf Staff

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Apartments across the country continue to get smaller, but DC is bucking that trend. At least for now. 

A new study from RENTCafé found that DC renters gained an extra 5 square feet as a result of slightly larger apartments delivering over the last decade. 

"The notoriously cramped renters in Washington D.C. are on the lucky side of apartment development with new rentals here offering a bit more space than units built before 2014," the study found. "That’s not true for other cities in the metro area like Arlington and Alexandria where the shrinking trend continues: these cities lost 22 to 33 square feet (about the area of a queen sized bed)."

The excitement that DC is getting larger apartments is a bit overstated. Despite delivering more spacious units than other metro areas, the average size of 744 square feet for new rentals puts the city at 7th on list of smallest apartments in the U.S. The study also found that studios and one-bedroom apartments make up the vast majority of new apartment construction in the city, representing 72% of the total units to deliver.

The data for this study is sourced from the Yardi Matrix and only counts units in buildings with at least 50 units.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/in_a_world_of_shrinking_apartments_dc_rentals_get_bigger/22427.