Since 2013, Apartment Construction Has Outpaced Population Growth in DC

• July 14, 2016

by Nena Perry-Brown

Given recent data on how DC’s population growth has exceeded expectations in recent years, the findings in a new District, Measured post may come as a surprise.

According to the city’s Office of Revenue Analysis blog, the construction of new apartments in the city since the first quarter of 2013 has outpaced population growth during that time.

Over the past three years, the city’s population has grown by roughly 34,000 people, an increase of 5.3 percent. Meanwhile, the number of new apartments increased by 7.8 percent, or 12,805 units.

The contrast between the numbers and percentages somewhat belies the premise of the study, as there is no way to determine whether the newly-constructed apartments are appropriate housing for new residents — or long-time residents, for that matter.

The study also states that 33,000 jobs were added in DC between 2013 and the beginning of 2016, an increase of 4.4 percent, but that office construction has lagged behind, with space increasing only 0.8 percent over that time. This is likely due to a local job market increasingly skewed toward service sectors and white-collar employment becoming more flexible and less office-centric.

The study gleaned the number of apartments constructed using data from CoStar. Apartments monitored by CoStar represent approximately 55 percent of the city’s housing stock.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/since_2013_number_of_apartments_has_outpaced_population_growth_in_dc/11468