Columbus Multifamily Report – Fall 2020
While transactions slowed down significantly, rent growth endured amid economic volatility.
Columbus rent evolution, click to enlarge
Columbus’ multifamily market has remained resilient in the face of economic and financial volatility. Weathering the national trend of declining rates during the second and third quarters, Franklin County rents stayed positive. On a trailing three-month basis through September, rents rose 0.3 percent to $1,018, while the U.S. average was up only 0.1 percent to $1,463.
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Employment gains started to decelerate at the beginning of last year. By July 2020, the health crisis had cost the metro more than 98,000 jobs, accounting for a 6.8 percent year-over-year workforce contraction. Following an initial shock, Columbus avoided more severe effects of the COVID-19 outbreak due to its lower population density, favorable cost-of-living metrics and diversified economy.
Columbus sales volume and number of properties sold, click to enlarge
Several large-scale industrial projects have completed groundbreaking or are in development across the metro. VanTrust Real Estate began work on a 2.3 million-square-foot park near Rickenbacker International Airport in September, and New Albany—an emerging tech hub northeast of downtown Columbus—will be home to Facebook’s third facility in Ohio and Google’s $600 million data center. In 2020 through September, 2,837 units came online, and more than $154 million in multifamily assets traded across Columbus—a 58 percent drop compared to the same interval last year.
