In the past five years, nearly 310,000 affordable apartments were built in the United States, with more than 91,000 affordable apartments completed in 2024—the highest annual total in the past decade, according to a new RentCafe report.
Construction rose 73% compared with the previous five-year period, far outpacing the 36% growth in overall apartment construction, reports the firm, which analyzed affordable housing construction over the last 10 years.
The report notes that affordable housing is starting to make up a larger portion of all new apartment construction. In 2024, nearly 14% of all new apartments were income-restricted—up from just under 9% a decade earlier, indicating a growing emphasis on affordability in new construction, says RentCafe.
Florin Petrut, a real estate writer and research analyst at the company, notes that the funding from the American Rescue Plan and expanded state housing tax credit programs contributed to the growth.
For the report, “fully affordable” refers to residential buildings in which all units are income-restricted—meaning rent is set so that it does not exceed 30% of the area median income, according to RentCafe. The study excluded partially affordable developments — properties that include a mix of income-restricted and market-rate units in the same complex.
Seattle led the nation in affordable housing construction with 14,290 affordable apartments completed in the last five years. That’s an increase of nearly 40% over the previous five-year period, reveals the study.
New York City followed with 14,240 units; Austin, Texas, with 13,343 units; the Twin Cities with 10,722; and Atlanta with 10,486 units to round out the top five markets for new affordable apartments.
In 16 of the top 20 metros, affordable housing construction increased by more than 50% from 2020 to 2024 compared with 2015 to 2019. San Antonio led the pack, with a 223% increase after adding more than 9,000 units in the recent period.
Phoenix; Charlotte, North Carolina; New York City; and Atlanta were the next markets experiencing the fastest growth.