Apartment Stock Estimates and Characteristics

The most comprehensive and current estimates of the characteristics of the national stock of apartments is provided by the American Housing Survey (AHS), conducted and published by the U.S. Census Bureau. The AHS also provides estimates of housing characteristics for selected large metropolitan areas. While the　printed AHS reports　(also available by downloading from the Census Bureau site) present much information on all renters, tabulations for apartment renters only are few and far between. Users needing detailed apartment tabulations may have to run their own tabulations from the "micro data" that can be downloaded for free from the HUD web site.

Additional information is available from the American Community Survey produced by the Census Bureau.

Property Values

Tabulations of estimated property values, by property characteristics, are available from the HUD/Census Bureau Property Owners and Managers Survey.

See also the NMHC research report estimating the value of the nation's apartment stock and its growth over the past 10 years as well as the estimated value of the apartment stock in 71 of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas.

Local Information

Many users want detailed information on the stock of apartments for local areas. For users that want information that is directly comparable from one metro area to another, the best available sources are data from the American Community Survey and estimates for both metropolitan areas and cities and towns. Users can generate counts of occupied rental apartments by detailed geographies using the American FactFinder. Users who require custom tabulations can use American Community Survey micro data as well as micro data from Census 2000.  Alternatively, selected private data providers provide this service.

NMHC Quick Facts

• Characteristics of Rental Apartment Units
• Metro versus Non-metro Distribution of Apartments
• Apartments by Region
• Distribution of Apartments by Property Size
• Who Owns the Nation's Apartments

Special analyses (NMHC Members Only)

• Apartment Supply Arithmetic
• How Much Excess Housing Is There?
• Is a Supply Shortage Looming?
• Rental Stock Trends from the "Bubble" Decade

Updated 3/2012