2,000 new apartments in the Twin Cities not enough to stoke vacancy rates

Nearly 2,000 new apartments hit the market in the Twin Cities metro so far this year, but there were plenty of renters to fill those spaces. The average vacancy rate in the metro during the second quarter was 2.7 percent compared with 2.6 percent during the previous quarter and 2.3 percent last year, according to a second-quarter report from Marquette Advisors.

Most of those new units were upscale luxury apartments, boosting the overall average market rent to $1,004, a 2.6 percent year-over-year increase.

All eyes have been on downtown Minneapolis, where 601 new units — or 30 percent of all new construction — hit the market during the first half of the year, boosting the average vacancy rate to 5.7 percent from 5 percent during the previous quarter and 3 percent a year ago.