This past week, New Orleans ranked No. 1 as the easiest metro area to build apartments. In another recent apartment study, New Orleans ranked as the slowest apartment-developing metro area out of 50 in the United States.
According to RentCafé and Yardi Matrix, 345,000 new apartments are expected to be completed by the 2017 in the United States, a 21 percent increase over last year.
Analyst expect New Orleans to add just 501 apartment units by the end of 2017. Researchers project that the next slowest metro area, Sacramento, California, will have 738 units completed by 2017.
Last year, the New Orleans added 730 new units, which is about 31 percent more than its 2017 projection.
Analysis considered units that are on track for a certificate of occupancy by the end of 2017.
Since last year, New Orleans has seen a population growth of 0.5 percent and a Job decline of 0.3 percent.
Metro areas in New York and New Jersey are among the strongest performing apartment-developing metro areas in the analysis.
The researchers that highlighted New Orleans as the easiest metro to build apartments, commissioned by the National Multifamily Housing Council and the National Apartment Association, suggested New Orleans build 7,000 apartments by 2030 to meet growing population demands.
The NAA and NMHC study supports that the nation as a whole needs to build 4.6 million units by 2030 to keep up with growing metro area demands.