The U.S. population grew by just 0.5% last year, a weak showing against the country’s already historically low growth rate.
A single-year drop is likely to cause ripple effects for slower-growth markets, but if the trend persists, the demographic shift could upend larger apartment markets, exacerbate turmoil in the multifamily sector and rebalance where investors direct development dollars.
“There’s going to be an effect, certainly in the gateway cities, and the size of that effect will be bigger the longer this new trend holds,” said Ken Johnson, a housing economist and the real estate chair at the University of Mississippi. “If we get in this…