The Milwaukee apartment market was again ranked as the third-“most competitive” in the nation according to a report from Santa Barbara, California-based
RentCafe, the same ranking that it gave the area’s apartment market a year ago.
RentCafe is a nationwide apartment listing service and is part of Yardi Systems, a global provider of property management software.
Miami again ranked as the nation’s most competitive apartment market, followed by the suburban Chicago area and then Milwaukee.
For the apartment market competitiveness report, RentCafe analyzed the 139 largest markets in the U.S. where data was available and raked them based on five key metrics when it comes to rental competitiveness. Those metrics were: apartment occupancy rate, average total days vacant, prospective renters per vacant unit, renewal lease rate, share of new apartments completed.
RentCafe uses those metrics to calculate a Rental Competitivity Index (RCI) to see how competitive the U.S. rental market is. The national score was 74.4 for 2024.
The Milwaukee rental apartment market’s Rental Competitivity Index in 2024 was 85.7, up from 80.3 in 2023, trailing only Miami at 91.2 and suburban Chicago at 88.0.
The Milwaukee apartment market had an occupancy rate of 95.1% in 2024, down a bit from 95.8% in 2023. Nationwide, the apartment occupancy rate was 93.6% in 2024.
According to the report, apartments in the Milwaukee market were vacant for an average of 36 days in 2024, up from 33 in 2023.
“Homebuying challenges and a tight housing supply have driven a surge in rental demand in Milwaukee,” the report states. “Millennials delaying home purchases, Gen Zers starting to rent after college and remote workers attracted by Milwaukee's affordability are all having a tough time finding apartments in Milwaukee due to limited available options. This is further amplified by the fact that vacant apartments account for less than 5% of all rental units. Adding to this, newly built apartments represent just 2.01% of the total rental supply, which is a sharp decline from 2.91% in 2023. As a result, 70% of renters chose to renew their leases, which was slightly more than in 2023. Accordingly, the average vacant unit in Milwaukee is filled within 36 days, with 12 renters competing for each apartment.”
For small apartment rental markets ranked separately by RentCafe, Madison ranked as the 6
th most competitive small rental market in the U.S. with and RCI of 85.3. Apartments in the the Madison market were vacant for an average of 28 days and the market’s apartment occupancy rate was 95.7% in 2024, down from 96.3% in 2023, according to the report.
