RENU tuned into CoStar’s State of the U.S. Multifamily Market: Mid-Year 2026 webinar this week, where CoStar’s Grant Montgomery, national director of multifamily analytics, shared an update on how the market is tracking against 2026 projections. Here are our key takeaways for investors.
Vacancy Remains Elevated
Vacancy is holding at 8% nationally and is expected to remain elevated through year end. That’s kept the market from regaining meaningful pricing power, even as new construction continues to slow.
As Montgomery summarized it, the market has stabilized, but it has not yet improved.
Concessions Are Now the Norm
Nearly 40% of listings are currently offering some form of concession or discount. That’s a significant jump from the tight, landlord favorable conditions of 2021 and 2022, when concessions were far less common. For renters, that means more negotiating power. For owners and operators, it means competing harder to fill units.
Demand Is Still Positive, Just Slower
CoStar projects 375,000 units of net absorption in 2026, down from 456,000 units last year. While that’s a step down year over year, demand remains positive overall. Renters are still absorbing new units, just not fast enough yet to bring vacancy down meaningfully.
What This Means for Investors
Right now, the multifamily market sits in an in-between state. It is not a downturn, and it is not yet a recovery. Vacancy is elevated, concessions are common, and pricing power is limited, but demand has not turned negative, and new supply continues to taper off.
For investors, this is a period that rewards patience and selectivity. Understanding where a given market sits in this cycle, and how close it is to a meaningful shift, remains the key variable for underwriting decisions in the second half of 2026.
Source: CoStar / Apartments.com, “State of the U.S. Multifamily Market: Mid-Year 2026” webinar.
