Rents Rise in NoMa, H Street As DC Apartment Vacancy Remains Low

• October 11, 2012

by UrbanTurf Staff

Trilogy at NoMa

A report out Thursday analyzing the regional apartment market in the third quarter of 2012 states that rents for Class A apartments in DC are up 3.6 percent versus last year, while Class B rents rose 1.5 percent. The numbers from Delta Associates are evidence that the ever-rising rents are no longer increasing quite as fast as in past months. Still, there are sub-markets where rents are showing double-digit annual gains.

Like last quarter, the largest increases for Class A rents were seen in the NoMa/H Street area, where rents rose 14.1 percent over the last year; the upper NW sub-market followed closely with a 13.7 percent increase.

Courtesy of Delta Associates.

Here is a quick snapshot of average rents for Class A apartments in DC sub-markets, as defined by Delta:

• Central: (Penn Quarter, Logan Circle, Dupont Circle, etc.) $2,785 a month
• Upper Northwest: $2,798 a month
• Columbia Heights/Shaw: $2,425 a month
• NoMa/H Street: $2,433 a month
• Capitol Riverfront: $2,378 a month

Rent increases are closely tied to vacancy rates which, while not as low as they once were, are still quite low in comparison to the rest of the country. The vacancy rate in the city for investment grade apartments (Class A and B) sits at 3.8 percent. Compared to a national rate of 4.8 percent, DC has the second lowest vacancy of any major metro area in the nation, following only New York City.

Definitions:

• Class A apartments are typically large buildings built after 1991, with full amenity packages. Class B buildings are generally older buildings that have been renovated and/or have more limited amenity packages.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/rents_rise_in_noma_h_street_and_upper_nw_as_apartment_vacancy_remains_low/6133