Hurricane Harvey damaged fewer apartments in greater Houston than estimated

ApartmentData.com, a leading marketing and information supplier to the multifamily industry, has been conducting one-on-one interviews with managers at 2,725 apartment properties in Greater Houston to obtain an accurate assessment of the number of units damaged by Hurricane Harvey. (See accompanying chart of properties that were assessed for this report.) 

As of Sept. 14, ApartmentData.com surveyed 1,926, or 70.7% of those 2,725 properties.

Key survey findings:
• 166 properties reported damage to 8,956 units, about 2% of the supply of surveyed properties and 1.4% of the total supply of apartments

• The overall average effective rent per month rose by $12 to $996 from $984 pre-Harvey

• The overall occupancy rate has dropped slightly, to 88.8% from 89.1% pre-Harvey This rate is based on keeping the damaged units in supply. 71,000 units available to rent

• If the damaged units are not included in supply, then the occupancy rate is 90.1 percent. 63,478 units available to rent

• Since Harvey, 6,063 units have been leased

• Prior to Harvey: the inventory of 2,725 properties represented 638,603 units, 70,000 units were available to rent

“As we continue to learn how apartment properties were affected by Harvey, I am surprised by the relatively low number of units damaged,” said Bruce McClenny, President, ApartmentData.com. “The most realistic comparison we can make is to Tropical Storm Allison, when we lost 5% of the supply, which was 20,000 units. Harvey was a much larger storm that created flooding across the entire region and we are only seeing about 2% of the supply affected so far. We still have to assess more properties so that percentage is likely to increase,” he added.