After dropping 9400 new apartment units onto the market in 2023 with another 8300 expected in 2024, Raleigh is having difficulty this year in absorbing the new units. This has led to flat or lowering rents. We are certainly seeing some apartments in downtown offering incentives such as one or more months of free rent.
However, the apartment absorption in Raleigh is still very impressive!
2023 saw 4100 units filled, and 2024 is on pace to see 7400 units snapped up. This still leaves unfilled apartments, and CoStar estimates 4.9 years of apartment inventory in Raleigh.
But new apartment construction is at its lowest in recent years (only 4500 units to come online in 2025), and people are still moving to town, with some estimates as high as 70 people per day. Costar’s estimate for years of inventory is backward-looking and includes the record-low absorption of 600 units in 2022.
4.9 years of supply is likely a conservatively high estimate, and could be much shorter.
Update November 2025: In short – Raleigh did NOT have a problem absorbing all those housing units! 🙂
Occupancy in Central Raleigh is at 95% in Q2 2025 according to Avison Young. The overall region of Raleigh-Durham shows year-to-date multifamily demand at 16,265 units versus supply of 13,345 units as of Q2 2025.
See the full CoStar article here: Construction Wave Puts Raleigh, Charlotte Among Markets With Most Years of Apartment Supply.
Doug Kline, PhD, has held income properties in North Carolina for more than 20 years. He holds a North Carolina broker’s license, and is a member of the National Association of Realtors and the Triangle Real Estate Investors Association. He holds an MBA and a PhD in business. In addition to his real estate activities, Doug enjoyed a successful career in academia, achieving the rank of Full Professor in the Cameron School of Business at UNC Wilmington. He was honored with research and teaching awards, served as Director of the MS Computer Science and Information Systems program, and was awarded the endowed position Distinguished Professor of Information Systems.