Is Huntsville’s Apartment Boom Coming to an End?
Huntsville Business Journal
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(October 13, 2026)
in Construction, Development, Environment, Featured, Housing, Lead, News, Real Estate
by Kara Coleman Fields
While construction of new apartment buildings has exploded in Huntsville in recent years, that growth is slowing – which means renters are likely to see rising housing costs.
“It really gets down to supply and demand,” said David Wilson, director of mixed-use assets for real estate development firm RCP Companies. “Right now, it’s still a very competitive time in the market, and there are a lot of properties that are still in their initial lease-up period.”
A lease-up period is the time when a new or recently renovated property hits the market and tries to fill up with new tenants until it reaches stabilization; a property is generally considered stable when at least 90% of its units are occupied. To attract new tenants, property management companies often offer incentives, such as reduced or free rent for a certain period of time.
Prospective tenants may want to sign their leases soon if they hope to capitalize on those incentives in Huntsville. Because the number of new apartments being built and delivered locally isn’t as high as it was a couple of years ago – and therefore there’s less competition – Wilson believes that Huntsville renters can expect to see less robust offers from apartment buildings looking to attract new tenants and occupy units in the near future.
“With the strong demand that we’re having in the market, there’s a lot more demand than there are units being delivered,” he said. “So that supply and demand equation results in occupancies rising. And as occupancies rise, the rental rates will start to increase. And we’re already starting to see that. The operators of the properties, the owners, the managers, and so forth, will begin to pare back the concessions. So instead of offering three months free, they’ll offer two months free, and then eventually they’ll go to one month free.”
Leasing incentives, including several weeks of free rent, have been common as Huntsville’s apartment market absorbs a wave of new units.
Data Requested from City of Huntsville:
The Huntsville Business Journal requested data from the City of Huntsville about how many apartments have been built in the city limits during the past few years. According to this data:
- 2024 saw a massive explosion of new apartments. The city issued certificates of occupancy for 5,211 individual apartment units, continuing an upward trajectory from 3,451 in 2023 and 2,545 in 2022.
- After 2024’s peak, Huntsville issued COs for 3,737 apartment units in 2025.
- As of Aug. 31, 2026, the number is 802 units.
Huntsville has certainly seen a population surge in recent years; in July 2025, the city estimated that 249,102 people called the Rocket City home – nearly a 16% increase since the 2020 census. And according to an email from Kelly Schrimsher, director of communication for the city, single-family home growth has remained steady during the apartment boom.
So what exactly drove the wave of new apartment construction?
“We had a massive supply wave that got triggered by extremely low interest rates, a very tight housing market – we were undersupplied for a couple of years. It was very difficult to buy a house,” Wilson said. “Occupancies for apartments were 97-98%+ percent. Rent growth was occurring at a national record-setting pace of 7 or 8% a year consistently, year after year. That was just rocket fuel on the market.”