1
U.S. Census Bureau
U.S. Department of Commerce
Economics and Statistics Administration
U.S. CENSUS BUREAU
H131/00-A
Characteristics of Apartments
Completed: Annual 2000
Current
Housing
Reports
1Details may not sum to totals because of rounding.
Questions regarding these data may be directed to Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, telephone: 301-457-3199.
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402.
U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development
INTRODUCTION
The Survey of Market Absorption (SOMA)
measures how soon privately financed,
nonsubsidized, unfurnished units in buildings
with five or more units are rented or sold
(absorbed) after completion. In addition, the
survey collects data on characteristics such as
number of bedrooms, asking rent, and asking
price.
HIGHLIGHTS1
• Preliminary estimates from the Survey of
Market Absorption show that during 2000,
a total of 226,100 privately financed,
nonsubsidized, unfurnished, rental apart-
ments in buildings of five units or more
were completed in permit-issuing areas in
the United States. This total does not differ
significantly from the estimated 225,900
rental completions in 1999, nor does it
differ significantly from the 209,900 such
units completed in 1998. The number of
unfurnished rental apartments completed in
these three years were the highest since
1990 (see Table 8).
• The majority (56 percent) of these new
units were built in the South, followed by
the West with 20 percent and the Midwest
with 18 percent (the latter two are not
significantly different). The Northeast
(7 percent) had fewer completions than
any other region (see Table 1).
• Two-bedroom units were the predominant
size built, accounting for about 51 percent
of newly constructed rental apartments,
compared with 34 percent for one-bedroom
units. Larger apartments, those with three or
more bedrooms ranked third at 12 percent,
while efficiencies (no bedrooms) accounted
for only 3 percent of rental completions. This
pat